i MUSEUMS FOR THE PEOPLE 15 



can be applied in any museum, and is, I believe, already 

 to some extent adopted in our best local institutions. It 

 has, however, never yet been carried out systematically; 

 and till this is done, we can form no true estimate of how 

 popular a Natural History Museum may become, or how 

 much it may aid in the great work of national education. 



NOTE. 



The paper on American Museums, which follows this, 

 was written eighteen years later, in Washington, immedi- 

 ately after a careful study of the two most remarkable 

 museums in the United States. It will be seen, that one 

 of these has carried out most of the suggestions of my 

 early article, and has besides developed the idea of 

 illustrating the Geographical Distribution of Animals 

 which is, so far as I know, entirely new. 



