1864.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 61 



if possible, tlie object itself. Again, if the sight of a specimen in 

 a collection — be it a stuffed bird, or a mineral, or a valuable nat- 

 ural product in any one of its stages of conversion to the use of 

 man — be found to augment the beholder's previous knowledge of it, 

 or to set him right in regard to any erroneous impression he may 

 have entertained ; if it serve to support or confute any theory, or to 

 suggest any idea that is afterwards worked out into useful results ; 

 or in fine, if it excite a spark in the mind which kindles into 

 the desire to go forth and study the works of nature in any por- 

 tion of her realm, there is one of the chief ends of such a collection 

 attained. 



" It is well worthy of note, that the variety of trains of thought 

 and of associations roused by the sight of an object presented as 

 a specimen is as great as that which exists in the mental qualities, 

 bias, and occupation in hfe of those who examine it. In this con- 

 nection I am tempted to quote the language of Sir John Herschel. 

 Commenting upon the different ideas attached by different per- 

 sons e^en to the name of a common substance, he says : ' Take 

 for instance iron. One who has never heard of magnetism has a 

 widely different notion of iron from one in the contrary predica- 

 ment. The vulgar, who regard this metal as incombusti 'le, and 

 the chemist, who sees it burn with the utmost fury, and who has 

 other reasons for regarding it as one of the most combustible bo- 

 dies in nature ; — the poet, who uses it as an emblem of rigidity ; 

 and the smith and engineer, in whose hands it is plastic and 

 moulded like wax into every form ; — the jailor, who prizes it as an 

 obstruction, and the electrician who sees in it only a channel of 

 open communication by which that most impassible of obstacles, 

 the air, may be traversed by his imprisoned fluid, have all differ- 

 ent notions of the same word. The meaning of such a term is 

 like a rainbow, — every body sees a different one, and all maintain 

 it to be the same.' 



" The only or principal effect upon some minds derived from in- 

 specting a collection of specimens appropriately arranged, is believ- 

 ed by many to be a sort of passive gratification traceable rather to the 

 influence of a tasteful artistic display, than to the recognition of any 

 positive result of useful knowledge. It may be so : with pre-occu- 

 pied minds, or through habitual indifference to what passes, some 

 persons may agreeably though cursorily inspect a museum with- 

 out carrying away any new information. Still the effect, so far 



