290 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



not divisible into two distinct groups ; there are inter- 

 mediate students of many grades, every one claiming 

 recognition. All the worse for the great public museum 

 as a place of elementary instruction ! 



In the school-museum this difficulty need not be felt, 

 for only the wants of a limited and ready-classified set of 

 pupils have to be considered. It would be easy in the 

 school-museum to arrange long series of minerals, fossils, 

 shells, birds' eggs, &c., in cabinets, and to display for 

 elementary instruction only the things which can be 

 made to tell their own tale effectively. 



Few of our public museums are effective for the purpose 

 of popular instruction. One notable example is, however, 

 before us. Our great Natural History Museum contains 

 many series of objects judiciously selected and skilfully 

 disposed for this very end. Teachers and classes who are 

 near enough to pay frequent visits to the museum may 

 study with every advantage impressive and self-explana- 

 tory collections, which will admirably reinforce the com- 

 paratively rough preparations made in the school or at 

 home. One caution is necessary. The great museum 

 contains such a wealth of striking objects that the risk 

 of distraction is unusually great. Many short visits would 

 be far better than a few prolonged ones ; the pupils should 

 be encouraged to see only a very few things in one day, 

 and these all closely and naturally connected. 



Museum specimens are such things as skins, skeletons, 

 models and fossils ; they do not show the plant or animal 

 in action. This does not mean that they are of no real 

 utility or interest ; but it shows that no museum can 

 suffice for the purposes of Nature Study. It must be 

 largely reinforced by outdoor lessons, experiments on 

 seedlings, daily observations on nest-building birds, insects 

 undergoing transformation, and the like. 



There are instances, which I am glad to believe grow 

 daily more numerous, of school-museums which are brought 

 together and arranged by the pupils. These, though far 



