110 REPORT — 1855. 



Br3'ozoa. 



Brachiopoda. 



Monomyaria. 



Dimyaria. 



Gasteropoda. 



Pteropoda. 



Cephalopoda. 



Pisces. 

 Reptilia. 

 Aves. 

 Mammalia. 



The following Report, with the I.ists received, were presented at the 

 Glasgow meeting : — 



The late lamented Prof. E. Forbes devoted his Introductory Lecture* at 

 the Museum of Practical Geology, in 1853, to a consideration of the " Edu- 

 cational Uses" of Museums, and he has there commented, with some degree 

 of severity, upon the very inefficient manner in which many local Museums 

 are arranged. Without wishing to extend his censures to Curators who have 

 devoted time and labour to the due arrangement of whatever objects have 

 been placed under their care, we cannot help remarking how inefficient their 

 exertions have proved in respect to the general " educational uses " to which 

 they might have been rendered subservient. Great care may often have been 

 bestowed in displaying numerous species belonging to one or more favourite 

 groups, whilst many others, more or less extensive (tribes, orders, and even 

 classes) among animals, plants, and minerals, are entirely unrepresented. 



Although our great National Establishments in London are adapted for 

 displaying a large proportion of all procurable objects of natural history, 

 it would require larger funds than local Museums are likely to command, 

 to adopt the plan which they follow. But it is within the power of every 

 Museum, however humble its pretensions, to procure and display such 

 instructive series of objects as may bring the entire range of natural history 

 in a forcible manner before the attention of the public. Wherever a specimen 

 of some species regarded as a sufficient type of a particular group cannot be 

 conveniently procured, then a model, a drawing, or a tracing from some pub- 

 lished figure may be introduced as a substitute. Naturalists often differ in 

 regard to what species they consider the best representatives of certain 

 groups ; but still, the judgement of Curators would be greatly assisted in 

 making choice of objects for public display, if they were furnished with lists 

 of types selected by naturalists who had paid special attention to particular 

 groups. If they considered it the primary object of their duty to secure 

 specimens of as many of these types as possible, and to obtain representa- 

 tions (models or figures) of whatever they could not procure, they would 

 possess a basis on which to ground their arrangement of whatever else their 

 Museums contained. There would no longer be great gaps in the general 



* On the Educational Uses of Museums (a pamphlet of 19 pp.), by Edw. Forbes, F.R.S. &c. 

 Longman and Co., 1853. 



