196 J. HOPKFNSON^ FORMATION AND 



My experience of the friendly disposition of the officers and 

 memhers of these clubs, assures me that here it is not necessary. 

 But, I feel justified in proposing a mode by which their liberality 

 may become more effectually and permanently beneficial ; I earnestly 

 advocate and petition for the formation of an entirely local museiira 

 at Malvern. Such an institution there, would be of the utmost value. 

 It is not so easy to establish as may be imagined. Whoever has 

 the charge of it will have difficulty, except it be made a funda- 

 mental law, an invariable statute, to keep the museum to its own 

 narrow but useful purposes. You will be offered curiosities from 

 every land, trifles from every sea. I entreat you to refuse all but 

 what is the growth of your own beautiful Malvernia, or the gift 

 of your own Palaeozoic and Mesozoic seas. Resolutely refuse to 

 contend with larger communities, to adopt less definite objects. 

 Have the courage to decline any specimens whatever that do not 

 actually belong to your own district." *' 



In the year following that in which the Address from which I 

 have taken these remarks was published, Professor Bell, in his 

 Presidential Address to the Linnean Society, thus treated of the 

 subject. " It was the observation of the most accomplished and 

 fascinating writer on local natural history that England has ever 

 seen, that if the natural productions of each district had their local 

 historian, our knowledge of the natural history of the country 

 would become more perfect than by any other means ; and every 

 one knows how beautifully and how perfectly the author of that 

 sentiment carried it into practice. It is indeed the only means by 

 which this end can be obtained ; and it is therefore with much 

 pleasure that I advert to the numerous local institutions now 



springing up in various directions the principal design of 



which is to allocate in a provincial museum the natural productions 

 of the county or of a more circumscribed district, and frequently 

 associated with a collection of local antiquities. I have thought 

 that it might be useful to point out some circumstances which 

 would conduce to the proper design of such institutions, and at 

 the same time render them the means of greatly extending our 

 acquaintance with indigenous zoology and botany. The primary 

 object then of these institutions should be the collection and 

 preservation of the animals, plants, and palaeontological specimens 

 which are found in the district ; and to this should be added 

 a full and accurate record of their habitats and of any other 

 interesting circumstances connected with them, whether of soil, 

 of geological position, of meteorological phenomena, the period 

 of the year when obtained, peculiarities in their habits, and in 

 short of any facts which may bear npon their history. If in 

 addition to this first consideration it happens that instruction is 

 to be given, by lectures or other means, in the study of natural 

 history generally, a typical collection may be added, which should 

 be considered as entirely distinct from the local one, and as having 



* ' On the Geology of the Malvem Hills,' p. 13.— 1855. 



