ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 3 



fulfilled, indeed, so far and in such way as our means have 

 permitted. 



As many of our members may not have visited the Forest 

 Museum recently, it may not be without use to explain what 

 has already been done there, and what more it is intended to do, 

 provided the necessary funds are forthcoming. Even in its 

 present incomplete state the Museum is a source of much 

 attraction to the crowds of excursionists in the summer months. 

 It appeals to many who might not otherwise be attracted to 

 a Museum. A visitor to the forest will casually enter the Lodge, 

 and have his attention arrested by the collections, whereas he 

 might never think of making a definite visit to a Museum in 

 town. And who dares to guess what far-reaching results may 

 perchance flow from such an accidental introduction ! It may 

 be true as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, that the ordinary 

 visitor to the British Museum " will know as much about it as the 

 fly that buzzes in at one window and out at another." But that, 

 I believe, is due mainly to the bewildering wealth of our National 

 Treasure-house. A small museum is likely to have in some 

 respects much more educational value than a large one ; and 

 just because our Forest Museum is not embarrassingly rich in 

 specimens, I venture to assess its value as altogether out of 

 proportion to its magnitude. That remarkable man, the late 

 Professor Rolleston, remarked that "a young man who is 

 possessed of a talent for Natural Science and Physical Inquiry 

 generally, may have the knowledge of this predisposition made 

 known to himself and to others, for the first time, by his 

 introduction to a well-arranged Local Museum. " (2) Is it 

 unreasonable to hope that some bright spirit — perhaps some 

 ' potential Darwin ' — may date his inspiration from a casual visit 

 to that little Museum in the Forest ? 



Obviously the first thing that claims attention in a forest 

 is its timber ; and hence a Forest Museum must contain, first 

 and foremost, illustrations of the Forest Trees. Of the throngs of 

 Londoners who visit Epping Forest, how small a proportion 

 •could name the common trees, even when clad in all their livery of 

 green ! I heard of a Cockney who, failing to distinguish one 

 •tree from another, grouped the oak, the beech, the eim, and a 



(2) Address to the Biological Section of the British Association at Liverpool, 1870. 



Report, p. 93. 



