104 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION D. 
There are two reasons why museums achieve so little of the 
good which may reasonably be expected from them. The first 
reason is that it is assumed that the visitors have a considerable 
knowledge of the objects exhibited. No mistake could be more 
fatal. It is true that most visitors are acquainted with sundry 
facts in natural history, but this knowledge goes a very little way 
in collections arranged for the benefit of the specialist. The 
ordinary visitor is not a trained zoologist, he is not familiar with 
the objects exhibited, his powers of observation have probably 
never been cultivated, and he is ignorant of the way in which 
every point of structure in an animal corresponds with the use of 
the part. Thus, he does not observe the differences between the 
stout legs of the ostrich, used for running, the comparatively 
slender legs of the stork, used for wading, and the short legs 
with webbed toes of the swimming birds, for he does not know 
that from the structure of an animal its habits of life may be 
inferred. The birds stand in the museum on pieces of wood in 
solemn rows, away from their natural surroundings, and there is 
no descriptive label to give any indication ; all that the visitor can 
learn is that the ostrich is called Struthio, and the stork Ciconia. 
How much profit has he derived from his visit to the museum ? 
The second reason why museums fail to effect their purpose is 
that they do not present a true picture of nature or of the 
working of natural laws. It has been abundantly shown by 
modern research that there is the closest connection between any 
organic being andits surroundings. The animal is a living being, 
influenced at every moment by other living beings around it; by 
its food supply ; by climatic and all other external conditions. 
So the stuffed animal of the museum, removed from its natural 
environment, does not truly represent the animal in life. What 
is the real interest attached to an animal? Is it so many square 
inches of brown fur? Is it not rather its life? And what 
instruction is to be gathered from it? Is it not instructive as an 
exemplification of the laws to which organic beings are subject ? 
Tt is over 30 years since Darwin pointed out how important 
and intimate were the relations of living beings to their environ- 
ment. His teaching infused new life into the study of Biology 
but the enthusiasm does not seem to have extended to museums. 
One would think that the “ Origin of Species” had never entered 
the doors of a museum. Most museums seem to be arranged 
chiefly, though most inadequately, with regard to the wants of 
the specialist, and the general public are scarcely thought of. But 
they fail in providing for both classes, for a specialist’s museum 
is about as much use to the general public as a Greek author is to 
one who does not know the Greek alphabet. The specialist, too, 
is badly provided for. He cannot study the objects as they stand 
in the museum, locked up in glass cases, imperfectly visible and 
inaccessible. 
