*» MUSEUMS. 



II. — Visitors. 

 During the year there has been a slight increase in the number of 

 visitors to the IMuseunis over that of the previous year, as shown by the 

 following table, but it should be noted that the Museums were closed for 

 three weeks prior to the meeting of the British Association : — 



1895. 1896. 



(264 Days) (245 Days) 



Total Visitors in the Year 308,987 ... 298,516 



Weekly Average 5,942 ... 6,092 



Daily Average 1,170 ... 1,218 



It may be of interest, for the sake of comparison, to point out that 

 the attendance at the British Museum (Natural History) for 1895 was 

 446,737, or a daily average of about l,4o6 persons ; that is, a difference 

 in favour of the National over the Liverpool Museum of 218 persons 

 daily, which must be considered a not unsatisfactory attendance. The 

 average daily attendance in the Museum of Science and Art in 

 Edinburgh for 1895 was 2,073, and in Dublin 1,262. This year the 

 attendances of schools that have taken advantage of the section in the 

 Education Code, under which the time devoted to instruction imparted 

 in Museums reckons as school attendance, has been well maintained. 

 Such classes have visited the Museum on 24 occasions in order to 

 receive lessons from the specimens on exhibition ; while many parents 

 have personally brought their children for the purpose of giving them 

 special lessons. 



Persons desirous of employing the Museums for the purpose of 

 research, reference or sketching, can, on giving satisfactory references, 

 obtain, by application to tlie Director, tickets enabling them to enter on 

 Fridays, and affording them special facilities for study. A room is 

 devoted to their accommodation, where particular objects of study 

 mav, with the approval of the Director, be brought for their convenience 

 from the cases. Tickets were issued, as usual, during the year — chiefly 

 to Artists and Students of Osteology and Dental Anatomy — who have 

 made extensive use of the collections on the days the Museum is other- 

 wise closed to the public. 



The Museums were represented by the Director at the Museums' 

 Association, which met in Griasgow. At the close of the session, a visit 

 was paid to the City of Perth, by the members and associates to 

 the then recently-opened Museum of the Natural History Society of 



