NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 



The Life of Museums. 



Mention of the Antiquaries in the same paragraph as the 

 Museums' Association reminds us that the former seem strangely 

 ignorant of the existence of the latter. At all events, the upshot of a 

 discussion on local museums, which they carried on the other day, 

 was the appointment of a committee to investigate the questions of 

 arrangement and financial support and the working of the Museum 

 and Free Library rate. It is an admirable thing that the archaeo- 

 logists should treat provincial museums with a proper seriousness, 

 but all these questions have been discussed over and over again by 

 the Museums' Association ; and if these gentlemen are really so 

 interested in the subject, how is it that none of those who spoke at the 

 congress or who have been elected on its sub-committee have, so far 

 as we can gather, with the exception of Mr. Ward of Cardiff, ever 

 attended the meetings of that Association ? 



A propos of local museums, we have received a copy of the 

 Yorkshire Weekly Post for June 23, in which the Science Editor, 

 Mr. G. W. Murdoch, has some very sensible remarks on the better 

 utilisation of those institutions. After alluding to the usual diffi- 

 culties with which provincial (and we may add other) museums have 

 to contend, such as too great enthusiasm for one section to the 

 neglect of others, the lack of local financial support, government by 

 illiterate town councillors, the vanity of donors, and the utilisation of 

 the museum as a convenient rubbish heap, he proceeds to enlarge 

 with much approval on several remarks of our own. From his own 

 examination of many museums, both at home and abroad, Mr. 

 Murdoch has, we are glad to find, come to the conclusion that a 

 museum is of greatest value for the cause of Science, and best fulfils 

 the purposes of its being when it is intimately connected with active 

 teaching and original investigation. The account, which we are 

 fortunately enabled to publish in this number, of the University 

 Museum at Oxford will show that a museum which thus co-operates 

 with the laboratory need never fear comparison with museums that 

 confine their functions to those of the store-room and the holiday 

 entertainment. The ideal museum would, in our opinion, be the 

 intermediary between its own collectors in the field and its own 

 researchers in the laboratory, with its exhibition galleries daily open 

 to neighbouring students, and its reserve collections always ready for 

 the inspection of specialists from every part of the world. 



Winchester Once More. 



From a leading article in the last number of the Wykehamist we 

 learn that the new Museum at Winchester College, to which, by the 

 way, Mr. Murdoch alludes, is to be worked on such lines as we here 

 advocate. " We hear talk," says the school journal, " of rooms for 

 photography, modelling, drawing, and practical natural history, quite 



