1S99] THE ESSEX MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 429 



" The Corporation agree to dedicate the main portion of the building 

 to the purposes of a Museum of Local (Essex) Natural History, Pre- 

 Historic Archaeology and Anthropology, and of Educational series 

 relating to the same ; to warm, light, and provide for the caretaking 

 of the building ; that the Club shall have the sole scientific control of 

 the collections aud the appointment of the curator, and be allowed 

 to keep its library in the building ; the Corporation also agreeing to 

 make a grant of not less than £100 per annum towards the curatorial 

 expenses. The Club agree to place their county collections, cases, and 

 cabinets in the Museum (excepting the Epping Forest collections, 

 which are to be retained in the Eorest Museum at Chingford) ; to do 

 their best to increase and improve the same ; to undertake the selec- 

 tion and scientific control of the collections ; to raise a certain capital 

 sum for the further equipment of the museum ; to appoint a curator, 

 and to devote a sum of £50 per annum towards the curatorial ex- 

 penses." Thus there is assured an annual income of £150 for that 

 most important part of a museum — the curator. " The museum will 

 be a Local (Essex) one, supplemented by short series having an 

 educational value, and designed to show the place of the local forms 

 in the general scheme of classification of animal and vegetable organ- 

 isms. The promoters aim at its eventually fulfilling three main 

 purposes : (1) The instructive recreation of the ordinary visitor by 

 means of carefully arranged sets of the chief forms of life inhabiting 

 the district, and examples showing the nature and meaning of fossils 

 and geological formations ; (2) assisting students and field-naturalists 

 in identifying and studying the groups in which they are interested ; 

 (3) collecting and preserving authentic series of all forms of life, recent 

 and extinct, occurring in Essex, as well as geological and anthropo- 

 logical specimens. This is a matter of really great scientific import- 

 ance in view of the changes in our fauna and flora now so rapidly 

 being brought about by the increase of population and the consequent 

 effacement of natural conditions in many parts of the country." This 

 scheme will be adhered to rigidly. Incongruous miscellanea and 

 donations saddled with conditions will be sternly rejected. On the 

 other hand, there will be systematic and organised collecting. " In 

 addition to the sets now in the possession of the Club, valuable collec- 

 tions have already been promised for the new museum, including a 

 Herbarium of Essex plants, a large collection of fossils and rocks for 

 the educational series, and a collection of the Crag fossils. Also a 

 collection of the Pleistocene Mammalian fossils and sets of the Lepi- 

 doptera and Coleoptera of the county, etc. The main difficulty lies 

 in the provision of suitable cases and cabinet accommodation for the 

 collections, and the classification and arrangement of the same, which 

 will entail a very considerable expenditure of money and time." This 

 latter is the part of the Essex Eield Club, which desires to raise for 

 the purpose £1000, and has therefore started a "Museum Purchase 



