MtTSETMs. 37 



01 she does not cause any disturbance or inconvenience to other 

 visitors. It would not do to have the public galleries used as a 

 soil of free and general lecture hall for unauthorised or even for 

 authorised lecturers. The contents of the cases are more and 

 more carefully selected and arranged as years go by, and nunc 

 and more skilfully labelled and set so as to convey information. 

 The specimens set out are not merely such as to be pointed at 

 and dismissed by a teacher escorting a crowd of children round 

 the museum, but they are very beautiful and anxiously chosen 

 things, calling for individual study and comparison by aid of 

 the labels and guide-Books which we provide. 



I am not able to speak of the Trustees' views in this matter; 

 but, personally, I should be glad to see a lecture theatre 

 attached to the museum, as in the great Natural History 

 Musexiin at New York, where lectures should be given once a 

 Aveek, free to the public and illustrated by lantern slides, on the 

 contents of the museum and the way to see and study them. 



But such lectures should, in my opinion, be given by the very 

 ablest members of our staff, or by men specially selected for 

 their great ability in exposition, and not by any volunteer 

 teachers or school authorities unconnected with the museum. 

 That, I say again, is merely a wish of my own, and I am not 

 able to say whether at any time in the future the Trustees may 

 consider it worth putting into practice. 



The above remarks answer, I think, Mr. Hinscliff's inquiries 

 2s os. 1 and 2 (see copy of Mr. Hinscliff's letter, enclosed here- 

 with). 



As to No. : J- --" possibilities of lending slides and specimens " 

 —I may say that there are no slides to lend, but that we allow 

 anyone to take photographs for slides on application, but we do 

 not lend specimens. We could not remove them from the cases 

 without loss and injury and destruction of our own exhibition. 

 But we give away thousands of specimens every year. Every 

 university in the country, a great many schools and municipal 

 museums, and also the Loudon School Board (County Council) 

 are on a list of institutions or persons " approved by the 



