Io THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
At first sight it may seem scarcely appropriate to the pages of this 
magazine, to advocate at length a scheme which appeals more to 
naturalists in general than to those who are especially engaged in 
microscopical studies. Yet, viewed broadly, from the standpoint 
of the scientific man, who draws knowledge from every source, and 
pleasure from every work of nature, and who sees in every enter- 
prise tending to reveal the handiwork of nature something to 
educate and elevate his fellow man, the subject is not inappro- 
priate to these pages. 
The venerable naturalist and collector, the Rev. Henry H. 
Higgins, to whose earnest labour is largely due the arrangement of 
the specimens of invertebrates in the free public museum of 
Liverpool—an arrangement which places that museum among the 
best in the world for purposes of public instruction—says: “A . 
specimen without a history, or even without a name, that calls forth 
a genuine exclamation ‘ How beautiful!’ fulfils a noble mission, 
especially when the observer is a child or young.” ‘This is the 
expression of a man who has devoted the best years of his life to 
the cause of public instruction. It carries with it, therefore, the 
weight of experience—experience in the noblest work of life, that of 
an earnest effort to instruct and elevate mankind. 
A labouring man fron the north country, visiting the museum, 
was struck by the beautiful forms of the madrepore corals, and, 
calling to his wife, he exclaimed, ‘“‘ They be sea-crystals, all different 
sorts of crystals as grow in the sea.” Had he stopped to read the 
explanatory cards he would have known that they were produced 
by the growth of beautiful animals. But it was enough for him 
that they were beautiful ; and by his sincere appreciation of that 
one characteristic, his mind was elevated, be it ever so little, above 
the plane of sordid existence. 
If skeletons and shells can thus impress the untutored mind, 
how much greater must be the influence of the sight of the living 
animals which have mysteriously formed them! Herein is the 
value of an aquarium as a means of instruction. Tell a child that 
the shells he plays with were once the houses of living animals, 
and he will wonder what kind of animals could live in such coiled 
and irregular shells. This is an example chosen from our own 
experience. How clearly the writer remembers the almost incredu- 
lity with which he first heard that animals lived in the shells—how 
could such a large animal as would fill the interior of the shell be 
held in his hand, crawl in and out through such a small doorway ! 
The idea that the shell was carried about on the animal’s back, 
was never thought of. Even now we might find one of the 
identical shells that so aroused our wonder in the days lang syne. 
Such are the strange notions of childhood ; and the teacher who is 
most successful is that one who can not only direct the thoughts of 
