A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



- Ui}Xt 



WEW V 



•OTANI 



QAKDi 



Vol. XIV. No. 355. 



P.AKT.ADOS, DECEMBER 4, 1915. 



Price Id. 



The Museum in Practice. 



MUSEUM may be great or small, imposing 

 < >t insignificant-looking, a huge national 

 [institution or a mere case of collections in 

 a school: but to be of real service it must have definite 

 objects, and those who visit must do so with a definite 

 purpose. 



One is reminded in relation to the above con- 

 sideration of some of the uses and abuses of the 

 larger institutions. \\Y rnaj take the British 

 Museum as an example. Here are to be found mag- 



nificent collections pertaining to every branch of art., 

 literature and science, ami in charge of these, various 

 authorities of high standing. These authorities are in 

 a position to give information to those who may 

 require it (chiefly investigators), .and great use is made 

 by investigators of the representative collections in all 

 departments of knowledge, and of the services of their 

 distinguished curators. This is perhaps onlj fully 

 realized by those engaged in scientific work in which 

 from time to time it is found necessary to refer to 

 the large museums on questions of the exact identity 

 of specimens. If, however, we turn from this inner 

 academic use unknown to the wider public and 

 examine the so-called popular benefits conferred by 

 such an institution as the British Museum upon 

 the nation, we meet with less pleasing results. 

 A great number of visitors parade the galleries 

 with mechanical thoroughness but leave too faintly 

 enlightened upon any subject or object of interest 

 other than those which may perhaps attract the 

 eye on account of some unimportant feature of 

 display or mystery. A writer of some repute has said 

 that his early and only impression of the British 

 Museum is being packed off in charge of a nurse to 

 spend the clay there as a punishment for some 

 piece of misbehaviour. This is not merely typical 

 of the British Museum. The Zoological Gardens, 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew, and many other public 

 establishments which come within the modern mean- 

 ing of the term a museum are also ven often 

 abused in this way. But instead of making these 

 places a nursery or a place of temporary con- 

 finement for children, it would surely be wiser to 

 encourage children to visit them for the intellectual 

 interest that everywhere abounds. It is surprising 

 how few adults attempt to explain anything that 



