ya7i. II, 1877] 



NATURE 



223 



and definite conception, by means of sense-images, of the 

 characteristic structure of each of the leading modifica- 

 tions of the animal kingdom ; and that is perfectly pos- 

 sible, by going no further than the length of that list of 

 forms which I have enumerated. If a man knows the 

 structure of the animals I have mentioned, he has a clear 

 and exact, however limited, apprehension of the essen- 

 tial features of the organisation of all those great divi- 

 sions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms to which 

 the forms I have mentioned severally belong. And 

 it then becomes possible for him to read with profit, 

 because every time he meets with the name of a struc- 

 ture, he has a definite image in his mind of what the 

 name means in the particular creature he is reading about, 

 and therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not 

 mere repetition of words ; but every term employed in 

 the description, we will say, of a horse or of an elephant, 

 will call up the image of the things he had seen in the 

 rabbit, and he is able to form a distinct conception of 

 that which he has not seen as a modification of that 

 which he has seen. 



I find this system to yield excellent results ; and I 

 have no hesitation whatever in saying, that any one who 

 has gone through such a course, attentively, is in a better 

 position to form a conception of the great truths of 

 Biology, especially of morphology (which is what v/e 

 chiefly deal with), than if he had merely read all the 

 books on that topic put together. 



The connection of this discourse with the Loan Col- 



Uection of Scientific Apparatus arises out of the exhibition 



pn that collection of certain aids to our laboratory work. 



|Such of you as have visited that very intei'esting collection 



lay have noticed a series of diagrams and of prepara- 



Itions illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diaLjrams 



ind preparations have been made for the use of the stu- 



ients in the biological laboratory. Similar diagrams and 



[preparations illustrating the structure of all the other 



[forms of life we examine, are either made or in course of 



jreparation. Thus the student has before him, first, a 



jicture of the structure he ought to see, secondly, the 



[structure itself worked out ; and if with these aids, and 



rsuch needful explanations and practical hints as a de- 



[monstrator can supply, he cannot make out the facts for 



fhimself in the materials supplied to him, he had better 



take to some other pursuit than that of biological 



[^science. 



I should have been glad to have said a few words about 

 [the use of museums in the study of Biolog)-, but I see that 

 [my time is becoming short, and I have yet another ques- 

 Ition to answer. Nevertheless I must, at the risk of weary- 

 ling you, say a word or two upon the important subject 

 [of museums. Without doubt there are no helps to 

 [the study of Biology, or rather to some branches of it, 

 'which are, or may be, more important than natural history 

 museums ; but, in order to take this place in regard to 

 .Biology, they must be museums of the future. The mu- 

 [seums of the present do not do by any means so much 

 . for us as they might do. I do not wish to particularise, 

 but I dare say many of you seeking knowledge, or in 

 the laudable desire to employ a holiday usefully, have 

 visited some great natural history museum. You have 

 walked through a quarter of a mile of animals more or less 

 well stuffed, with their long names written out underneath 

 them, and, unless your experience is very different from 

 that of most people, the upshot of it all is that you leave 

 that splendid pile with sore feet, a bad headache, and a 

 general idea that the animal kingdom is a " mighty maze 

 without a plan." I do not think that a museum which 

 brings about this result does all that may be reason- 

 ably expected of such an institution. What is needed in a 

 collection of natural history is that it should be made as 

 accessible and as useful as possible, on the one hand to 

 the general public, and on the other to scientific workers. 

 That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy 



hunting-ground of miles of glass cases, and, under the 

 pretence of exhibiting everything, putting the maximum 

 amount of obstacle in the way of those who wish pro- 

 perly to see anything. 



What the public want is easy and unhindered access to 

 such a collection as they can understand and appreciate; 

 and what the men of science want is similar access 

 to the materials of science. To this end the vast 

 mass of objects of natural history should be divided 

 into two parts— one open to the public, the other to men 

 of science, every day. The former division should ex- 

 emplify all the more important and interesting forms of 

 life. Explanatory tablets should be attached to them, 

 and catalogues containing clearly-written popular ex- 

 positions of the general significance of the objects 

 exhibited should be provided. The latter should con- 

 tain, packed into 3 comparatively small space, in rooms 

 adapted for working purposes, the objects of purely 

 scientific interest. For example, we will say I am an 

 ornithologist. I go to examine a collection of birds. It is 

 a positive nuisance to have them stuffed. It is not only 

 sheer waste, but I have to reckon with the ideas of the 

 bird-stuffer, while, if I have the skin and nobody has 

 interfered with it I can form my own judgment as to what 

 the bird was like. For ornithological purposes what is 

 needed is not glass cases full of stuffed birds on perches, 

 but convenient drawers into each of which a great quan- 

 tity of skins will go. They occupy no great space and do 

 not require any expenditure beyond their original cost. 

 But for the purpose of the public, who want to learn 

 indeed, but do not seek for minute and technical 

 knowledge, the case is different. What one of the 

 general public walking into a collection of birds desires 

 to see is not all the birds that can be got together. 

 He does not want to compare a hundred species of the 

 sparrow tribe side by side ; but he wishes to know 

 what a bird is, and what are the great modifications of 

 bird structure, and to be able to get at that knowledge 

 easily. What will best serve his purpose is a compara- 

 tively small number of birds carefully selected, and artis- 

 tically, as well as accurately, set up ; with their different 

 ages, their nests, their young, their eggs, and their skele- 

 tons side by side ; and in accordance with the admirable 

 plan which is pursued in this museum, a tablet, telling 

 the spectator in legible characters what they are and what 

 they mean. For the instruction and recreation of the 

 public such a typical collection would be of far greater 

 value than any many-acred imitation of Noah's ark. 



Lastly comes the question as to when biological 

 study may best be pursued. I do not see any valid 

 reason why it should not be made, to a certain extent, a 

 part of ordinary school training. I have long advocated 

 this view, and I am perfectly certain that it can be carried 

 out with ease, and not only with ease, but with very con- 

 siderable profit to those who are taught ; but then such 

 instruction must be adapted to the minds and needs 

 of the scholars. They used to have a very odd way 

 of teaching the classical languages when I was a boy. 

 The first task set you was to learn the rules of the Latin 

 grammar in the Latin language — that being the language 

 you were going to learn ! I thought then that this was 

 an odd way of learning a language, but did not venture 

 to rebel against the judgment of my superiors. Now, 

 perhaps, I am not so modest as I was then, and I 

 allow myself to think that it was a very absurd 

 fashion. But it would be no less absurd if we were 

 to set about teaching Biology by putting into the hands 

 of boys a series of definitions of the classes and orders 

 of the animal kingdom, and making them repeat them 

 by heart. That is a very favourite method of teaching, 

 so that I sometimes fancy the spirit of the old classical 

 system has entered into the new scientific system, in which 

 case I would much rather that any pretence at scientific 

 teaching were abolished altogether. What really has to 



