326 OPENING OF THE ESSEX MUSEUM, ETC. 



be able to turn for reference and information. So also with the history of 

 early man in Britain. What more appropriate home for the rare specimens 

 of his handiwork in the way of weapons, ornaments, pottery, &c., than the 

 museum of the district in which such relics are found ? All this and much 

 more than I can ever tell you of is no doubt quite familiar to all members of 

 the Essex Field Club, but I have ventured to state the case for local museums 

 again because to-day we inaugurate a departure in the management of such 

 museums, which is somewhat novel in the history of similar undertakings. 

 The associations of a County Museum with a Technical Institute is a kind of 

 alliance which cannot but prove most helpful to both. For while those who 

 are responsible for the contents of the museum, the naturalists, have a very 

 large task before them to supply the series of specimens required to represent 

 the county flora and fauna, &c., the West Ham Council supplies that guaran- 

 tee of permanence without which local enthusiasm in all museums is apt to 

 die out. Mr. Passmore Edwards may feel assured that his munificence will 

 prove fruitful for the future, while the naturalists may go to work with re- 

 doubled zeal in order to assist in filling the cabinets with collections worthy 

 of their Country and their Club. (I^oud applause.) 



In another way also does this association of the museum with the 

 institute appear to be a beneficial one. The students attending the classes of 

 such an Institute as this are for the most part engaged in studying those 

 sciences which are classed under the general term " physical," viz., physics, 

 chemistry, engineering, and so forth. The existence in the same building of a 

 museum in which may be seen the various animals and plants which inhabit 

 the county may serve as an incentive for some among them to enlarge the 

 scope of their studies in that direction — in the direction of "natural" as 

 distinguished from "physical" science, and so to enter upon leisure-time 

 pursuits which are as healthy physically as they are mentally. For, indeed, 

 there is no antagonism between the various departments of nature ; all is one 

 " harmonious whole," and there is no reason why the mosi expert electrician, 

 or chemist, or engineer, among us should not be able to look with intelligent 

 interest upon nature's handiwork, and to follow in the footsteps of the wise 

 king, who " spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto 

 the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also of beasts, and of 

 fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." In other words I wish to insist 

 upon the educational value of a museum such as that which we are inaugu- 

 rating. It is true that the development of the museum on purely educational 

 lines will require new and somewhat costly sets of preparations, but it is 

 evident that a museum so happily connected with a technical institute as our 

 Essex Field Club Museum offers unprecedented advantages for such develop- 

 ment. (Applause.) 



I have once again to congratulate our premier Natural History Society 

 on this successful culmination of their scheme. It augurs well for the future 

 success of your undertaking to hear, as I have, that your collections are 

 already too large to be displayed to full advantage in the space at your dis- 

 posal. But this is a healthy sign ; it is one of those instances where it will be 

 found better to suffer from surfeit than to languish trom starvation. (Hear, 

 hear.) I am requested also to point out that in spite of the large quantity of 



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