i6o JOHN STEVENS HENSLOW 



viewed as the means of assisting us in the acquisition of real 

 knowledge, and not merely to be gazed at as raree shows, or 

 as only valuable in proportion to the number or scarcity of the 

 objects they contain." 



Of course, periodical lectures were delivered by the Pro- 

 fessor at Ipswich, and he was a most lucid and admirable 

 exponent. 



He was the first to maintain that in museums of animals, 

 they should, whenever possible, as, e.g. with birds, be represented 

 in their natural conditions. With this object he collected nests 

 with the boughs, or whatever it was in which they rested. Since 

 then this plan has been admirably carried out at the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington. He also supplied several 

 museums with wasps' and hornets' nests with their surroundings. 

 The plan he discovered most convenient for taking them, was 

 to saturate tow with spirits of turpentine and place it at night 

 in the hole, covered over with an inverted and corked flower- 

 pot. The nest could then be dug up with impunity, as all the 

 wasps were dead or torpid by the following morning. He 

 always preserved the " pavement " or bottom-soil covered with 

 stones which accumulated as the hollow for the nest increased 

 in size. The nest was then suspended over it on rods to show 

 the exact position. It was also half-dissected, to exhibit the 

 interior, all the grubs having been carefully extracted. The 

 village carpenter, the late Mr W. Baker, was a most enthusiastic 

 assistant in taking and mounting the specimens. 



When the potato famine occurred in Ireland in 1845 46, 

 the disease was very prevalent in Hitcham. This induced the 

 Professor to explain to his parishioners and others for he 

 published his recommendations how they could utilise their 

 rotten potatoes by extracting the valuable starch, which still 

 remained sound within the tubers, even when these were refused 

 by pigs. The process is so simple that it may be mentioned 

 here. The potatoes must be grated (a piece of tin with holes 

 punched through it will do); the pulp is then stirred with a 

 stream of cold water through a hair-sieve. The brown water 

 must be allowed a few minutes for the starch, carried through, 

 to settle. The water is poured off, and the layer of starch must 



