94 ENDOWMENT OF MUSEUMS vn 



and support of the Council of the College, have followed him 

 in the care of the collection, may not be impaired or destroyed. 

 Whether the whole of the charges of maintaining such a 

 museum in all its parts on a continually extending scale 

 should be the duty of one institution, like the College of 

 Surgeons, or even of one profession, may be a question for 

 future consideration ; but, in the meantime, how easily could 

 its preservation and extension be rendered entirely inde- 

 pendent of all the chances and changes of medical educa- 

 tion and legislation, or even of Government assistance and 

 interference ! When we see the immense sums voluntarily 

 provided every year in this country by donation and bequest ; 

 when we see, and see with pleasure and gratitude, through the 

 length and breadth of the land, cathedrals, churches, chapels, 

 colleges, schools, hospitals, and asylums founded, endowed, 

 enlarged, and restored, may we not hope that an old and tried 

 institution like ours will not be so entirely neglected as it 

 has hitherto been by members of our profession in search of 

 some means for the disposal of any surplus wealth they may 

 possess. Few objects can be so surely productive of good, so 

 little liable to abuse at any future time, as the preservation, 

 augmentation, and maintenance of a museum, in which the 

 facts of the beautiful and wonderful world around us are 

 displayed for the instruction of mankind. 1 



1 The hope expressed above was soon realised in the magnificent bequest of 

 Sir Erasmus Wilson, who died in 1884, leaving nearly the whole of his property, 

 amounting to upwards of 200,000, to the College of Surgeons unfettered by any 

 conditions. The part that I was permitted to take in bringing about this great 

 benefit to the Museum cause has always been a source of unmitigated satisfac- 

 tion to inc. 



