320 Notes and Comments. 
more particularly by the appearance of man in the geological 
record. The continuity is so marked that the present face of 
nature may be taken to be the current, but not necessarily the 
last, of the stages of the evolution of life in the Tertiary Period. 
A museum arranged on these lines, made intelligible by lectures 
and addresses, cannot fail to become an important instrument 
in a system ot education in which the study of things is becoming 
at least as important as the study of books. 
LOCAL MUSEUMS, 
In opening a discussion on ‘ Local Museums’ at the Con- 
ference of Delegates, Dr. W. E. Hoyle proposed “merely to 
throw down certain bones of contention for those present to 
worry to their hearts’ content.’ He stated that ‘ May I lay 
it down at the outset that the first and fundamental function 
of a museum is to preserve. We museum officials are now-a- 
days given so much good advice about the desirability of 
making our exhibits aesthetically attractive, of compiling 
explanatory labels which shall at the same time instruct the 
specialist and interest the casual visitor, and of catering for 
school children, that we are, perhaps, in danger of forgetting 
that our paramount duty is to see that “ neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt ’’ and that “ thieves do not break through 
nor steal.” It always tends to clearness of thought in approach- 
ing any subject to begin with a definition. I will, therefore, 
provisionally define a local museum as a museum existing in 
a place, belonging to that place, destined for the instruction 
and delight of the dwellers in that place and illustrative of that 
place.’ . 
AND THEIR DUTY. — 
‘It follows from this that the first duty of a local museum 
is to preserve the things of interest pertaining to the locality, 
whether they illustrate its history, folk-lore, natural history or 
any other topic. These must be carefully kept and every 
particular relating to them recorded with scrupulous accuracy. 
A certain proportion must be exhibited in such a way that 
their points of interest may be readily seen and they must be 
adequately labelled—all this in accordance with principles 
which are now-a-days well understood by every qualified 
museum official. Complete reference collections of animals, 
plants, fossils and the like, must be formed and kept in cabinets 
accessible to those desiring to make use of them for purposes 
of study.’ 
NATIONAL ¥. PROVINCIAL. 
‘ Here, I think, it is necessary to consider the important 
and delicate question, ‘“ What ought to be the relations between 
the Local Museum and the National Museum?” Broadly 
stated, the solution is to be found in the general principle, 
Naturalist, 
