XXYII. 

 OX LOCAL MUSEUMS. 

 By H. George Fokdham, F.G.S. 

 Read at Watford, 15th March, 1881. 



I NEED offer no apology for bringing before a local scientific 

 society the subject of local museums. That these museums might 

 liave, and in some cases do have, a most valuable educational 

 inliueuce, will, I think, be readily admitted ; and I think it must 

 also be admitted that, as a rule, the influence they do actually 

 exert is very small. In fact, we often find that a local museum 

 consists of a collection or collections of various objects, sometimes 

 well arranged, but generally without a practically efficient arrange- 

 ment, shut up in some out-of-the-way room and covered more or 

 less with dust. The very existence of a museum in such a condi- 

 tion becomes almost forgotten, even in its immediate neighbourhood. 

 Yet we should very probably find, if we investigated the origin of 

 such a museum, that much enthusiasm had been spent and much 

 labour bestowed in the collection and arrangement of the now dust- 

 hidden specimens. 



These unsatisfactory results arise, I believe, primarily from the 

 fact that although the main principle is good, and has been clearly 

 seen to be good by those who have been the originators of these 

 collections, a sufficiently acciu-ate perception has not been obtained 

 of the absolute necessity of keeping one distinct aim in view. It 

 has generally been thought sufficient to get together a number of 

 objects, some interesting in themselves, some perhaps quite useless 

 and valueless, and, having put them in cases, to leave them to 

 attract attention and speak for themselves. 



This being so, I will draw your attention to what I consider may 

 be accepted as general principles with regard to museums, and then 

 point out the application of these principles to the subject before 

 us, and I hope I may in this way be able to do something towards 

 arousing a feeling that it is desirable that local museums should 

 be established and maintained iipon a proper basis. I take it that 

 there are, broadly, two kinds of museums, which I may term (1) 

 "accumulative" and (2) "educational"; and although all 

 museums may not be distinctly referable to one of these two classes, 

 yet I think it will be found that the majority will naturally fall 

 into one or the other, and that those which do not do so have their 

 value and utility diminished in proportion as they are deficient in 

 definiteness of character. 



If we consider, then, the class of museums which I have termed 

 accumulative, we find that the aim is the collection and preserva- 

 tion of natural objects or artificial productions which are rare, 

 valuable, or unique, or of which the species — if I may use the 

 term in such a wide and general sense — is likely to be destroyed. 

 In these museums we find a capacity of absorption only controlled 



