ARUAJfGEMENT OF Ml'SEUMS. 197 



a totally difforcnt object !My friend Professor Pliillips, in a 



recent address to the Malvern Field-Naturalists' Club, alluding to 

 the formation of such a museum, lias very strongly, and with great 

 propriety, urged the rejection, by an absolute rule, of all offers of 

 specimens excepting such as are connected with the locality. The 

 consequence of the neglect of this salutary caution is the accumu- 

 lation of masses of specimens from all parts of the world, many of 

 which might be available if suitably placed, but are a mere useless 

 incumbrance in a local museum. They not only occupy space 

 which might be more beneficially employed, but they take off the 

 attention and waste the time of those who resort to the museum for 

 information, and of those whose duty it is to take care of the con- 

 tents and keep the records." * 



A few years later Professor Owen, referring to the proposed 

 formation of a museum at Wimbledon, in 1862, writes : "I believe 

 that the most useful museum for a suburban locality, such as 

 Wimbledon, contiguous to commons and wooded grounds and 

 preserves, is that which is devoted to the natural objects of such 

 locality. It gives a stimulus to observe and collect: it adds an 

 interest to every object contributed, in the relation which each 

 specimen always bears to its collector, and the circumstances 

 attending its recognition. "Well carried out, such a museum is 

 helpful to science in fixing a date to the fauua and flora of the 

 district determined on, and in giving the material means of con- 

 trasting it with the condition of both at a later period "f 



In giving the opinions of four of the most eminent scientific men 

 of our day, who have had, in their official position chiefly, the 

 amplest opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the causes of 

 success and of failure in the establishment of provincial and other 

 museums, I trust that I have adduced sufiicient authority for in- 

 sisting on the necessity of making a provincial museum an epitome 

 of the productions of a certain definite area — of the district or of 

 the county in which it is situated. 



Applying this general rule to our own special case, the museum 

 of the Hertfordshire jS'atural History Society should represent as 

 faithfully as possible the natural history of the County of Hertford. 

 The formation of such a museum need not, however, preclude the 

 formation of an educational museum under the same roof. If such 

 should be attempted, the advice given by Professor Bell in the 

 remarks quoted from his address to the Linnean Society, should be 

 strictly followed. The educational museum should consist of a 

 typical collection specially adapted for the illustration of lectures, 

 or other means of instruction, and it should be entirely distinct 

 fi'om the local one, having a totally different object. 



Upon this point- — the desirability of having in the same building 

 a local and a typical educational collection kept entirely distinct — 



* ' Proc. Linn. Soc.,' Session 1865-66, pp. xxiii, xxiv. 



t From a Letter (dated 19th Jan. 1862) to Mr. Joseph Toynbee, F.R.S., 

 Treasurer of the Wimbledon Museum Committee, in ' Hints on the Formation of 

 Local Museums,' p. 57. — 1863. 



