NATIONAL VALUE OF MUSEUMS 321 



the distinctive features of its natural history and anti- 

 quities. 



It is clear that whatever failures in this respect may be 

 inevitable in those hopelessly starved and mismanaged 

 "museums" at present surviving to bear witness to the 

 decay of public spirit and intelligent culture in our 

 country towns, the prime duty of the great London 

 museum is to preserve " records " with the greatest 

 nicety and readiness for reference, whilst the duty of 

 actively adding to these records from all parts of the 

 Empire, and, therefore, of the world, and that of 

 minutely studying and reporting upon the collections 

 so obtained and guarded, follow as a matter of course. 

 These collections are the absolutely necessary founda- 

 tion for the building-up of our knowledge of Nature 

 and of man. We can never say that this branch of 

 scientific knowledge is valuable and that another is a 

 mere fanciful pursuit. Every year it becomes more and 

 more clear that unexpectedly some apparently insignifi- 

 cant piece of detailed scientific knowledge may become 

 of value to the State and to humanity at large. Every- 

 one knows that geology has a great practical value in 

 mining, water supply, and various kinds of engineering, 

 also that botany, as represented by the great State 

 institution at Kew, is of immense value to those who 

 introduce useful plants from one part of the world for 

 cultivation in another. But of late we have seen that 

 entomology "bug-hunting" as it is scornfully termed 

 is a science upon which hang not only the revenue 

 of an Empire, but also the lives of millions of men. 

 Destructive insects must be known with the utmost 

 accuracy in order to stop their injury to crops in the 

 distant lands which they inhabit, and also in order to 

 check the diseases carried by them which sweep off 

 vast herds of costly cattle. The mosquitoes and the 



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