38 ■ NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 



the School of Art, the National Library, and the Botanic Gardens, 

 was well known to be one of some difficulty and responsibility, and 

 my reason for accepting it, and relinquishing a post of much greater ease 

 and freedom of action, was mainly this, that the management of a 

 Museum of wide range had been, I may say, the dream of my life, and 

 the occasions when I had temporary charge of Museums in India, in- 

 cluding that of the Imperial Museum in Calcutta, which had been 

 just then transferred from the Asiatic Society of Bengal to the 

 Government, under circumstances similar to those I have described 

 above, only whetted my long-cherished desire for a permanent 

 appointment of the kind. 



In what I have to say regarding the further stages in the evolu- 

 tion of this Museum during the past eleven years, I shall pass with- 

 out mention the difficulties which have had to be met, and the 

 controversies they have given rise to ; much as they have added to 

 our labours and anxieties, they are not matters suitable for 

 introduction here, but the curious may find them, or some of them, 

 recorded elsewhere. 



One of the first steps which I found to be necessary was the 

 extension of the already established workshops in connection with 

 the Museum ; and soon after a printing press was provided, by which 

 printed labels could be speedily prepared on the spot, and the educa- 

 tional value and, so to speak, the self-explanatory character of the 

 collections extended. 



Shortly afterwards application was made to the Lords of the 

 Committee of Council for permission to open the Museum on Sundays. 

 This was immediately granted ; and the proposition, it may be added, 

 met with no opposition whatever from any quarter, but, on the con- 

 trary, was hailed with delight by the public, who have since availed 

 themselves of the privilege in ever increasing numbers. This was in 

 1884, or just ten years ago, and as in the case of the three other 

 institutions in Dublin, which were first opened on Sundays many years 

 earlier, with two of which I am also officially connected, the movement 

 has been an unqualified success, and a boon which is much appreciated 

 by the public. I very well remember the terms of approbation in 

 which it was spoken of by the visitors when they were interro- 

 gated on the first few Sundays after the first experimental open- 

 ing. Among them were working men who had never been inside 

 the walls of the Museum before, and others who voluntarily 

 explained that their usual occupations on Sundays consisted in 

 driving about on cars, with an occasional visit to a public-house. 

 It may be asked by some. How about the employment of labour 

 on Sunday ? To it I can reply that no compulsion whatever 

 has been used. The rate of Sunday pay being liberal, we find 

 plenty of volunteers from among the staff to supply frequent changes 

 of a sufficient number to take Sunday duty in turn. These facts 

 have been placed before the Society in London which has the 



