Mr. Coates's Address 135 



LOCAL MUSEUMS AS AIDS IN THE 

 TEACHING OF NATURE-KNOWLEDGE 



By Mr. HENRY COATES, F.R.S.E., President of the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science 



(Abstract) 



My object in bringing before you the subject of 

 local museums is to endeavour to show how such 

 institutions may best be made useful both to teachers 

 and scholars in the pursuit of Nature-study. I am 

 well aware, of course, that the primary aim of this 

 new addition to the education code is to lead the 

 pupils to observe natural phenomena for themselves, 

 at first hand, in the field. At the same time, I need 

 not remind those of you who are naturalists, or 

 teachers of natural science, that there is no subject 

 in which the assistance of museum illustration is of 

 greater value than it is in the study of natural science, 

 provided always that the museum illustration is of 

 the proper kind. 



We were reminded yesterday by more than one 

 speaker that one of the most important features of 

 Nature-study ought to be its local character ; that is 

 to say, the pupil ought first to be taught to compre- 

 hend the topography, the geology, the fauna and 

 flora of his own district. It is just here that the 

 value of a properly-equipped local museum comes in. 

 Those of you who take an interest in museum matters 

 will doubtless remember how constantly the late Sir 

 William Flower, Director of the Natural History 

 Museum, insisted on the importance of having good 

 local museums in all the principal provincial centres, 



