V. 



The Museums of Public Schools. 



I.— CHARTERHOUSE. 



IT is an encouraging sign that the " Museum Question " has 

 penetrated into the majority of our Public Schools, and that a 

 desire is felt that the " old-curiosity-shop " type of museum should 

 give place to an organised institution of real educational value. It 

 will be granted on all sides that education is the primary object of all 

 and particularly of School Museums. 



The problem then presents itself — How ought a Public School 

 Museum to be arranged to the best advantage of Public School 

 teaching ? To this question a cut-and-dried answer applicable to all 

 is impossible, for, within limits, each Museum requires to be adapted 

 to the special characters of its locality, to the class of persons for 

 whose instruction it exists, and to the special teaching of various 

 subjects in the school curriculum. 



Probably in all cases the objects possessed by any Museum can 

 be arranged so as to bear reference to one of the following sciences : 

 Ethnology, Zoology, Botany, Geology, and Mineralogy. It is almost 

 superfluous nowadays to insist that each of these subjects should be 

 kept distinct from one another. It is best that a separate room 

 should be devoted to each, but since this must often be impossible in 

 schools, at any rate let the cases contain specimens illustrative of 

 one only of these " ologies," and let the object and purpose of each 

 case be conspicuously apparent. 



In any large school there are at least two sets of individuals 

 whose needs must be considered in the arrangement of the Museum. 

 Firstly, the average boy who has a healthy love of Nature, but does 

 not know or wish to know overmuch about the details of structure, 

 principles of classification, theoretical considerations, and so on, but 

 is content with external form and interesting anecdotes. This variety 

 of boy is destined to become a " country gentleman," and, as such, 

 he has a sportsman's desire to be able to identify his captures and 

 to know something of their habits. Such persons, be they young or 

 old, deserve all encouragement ; among their number are found a few 

 ardenl collectors willing to enrich the Museum and a few — alas ! a very 

 few — careful observers keeping an amateur naturalist's diary and 



