126 REPORT— 1888. 



It is here that the provincial museums should take up the work, and 

 should find their legitimate and most useful sphere. Every provincial 

 museum ought, in the first place, to be a fulhj illustrated monograph of 

 its own district. The details of each district can be worked up more 

 thoroughly and more cheaply by the local museums than by any other 

 agency, and if the entire history of the district and its inhabitants is 

 thus represented, special attention being given to any group of objects 

 for which the district is remarkable, this will be almost as much as any 

 local institution can accomplish. 



But science is daily becoming more exacting in its demands. Details 

 which were thought ample in any provincial museum twenty years ago 

 would now be regarded as quite insufficient. 



In the department of geology every local variety of rock, with its 

 fossils and its minerals, must be illustrated by specimens, by microscopic 

 slides, and by chemical analysis ; the stratigraphy and its relations to 

 the physiography, the drainage, and the water supply, must be shown by 

 diagrams, maps, and models, and careful records of every boring, sinking, 

 and cutting, systematically procured and pi'eserved. 



In natural history the animal and vegetable life of the district must 

 be represented in the most complete manner possible. There must be 

 specimens of every indigenous animal from the highest vertebrate to the 

 amoeba, and of every plant, including the lowest cryptogams, and at least 

 those forms which are characteristic of the district must have their whole 

 life histories illustrated by specimens of male, female, young in various 

 stages, the skeletons and the nests or habitations of animals, and the soils 

 and habitats natural to the plants. 



The history of man in th& district must be elaborately represented 

 from the earliest pre-historic relic up to the latest phase, every local 

 speciality of food, art, dress, customs, and language being recorded. 



Thus much must be accomplished by every provincial museum if it 

 is to ' contribute its share to the general scientific statistics of the 

 country.' But if its collections are also to serve the purpose of interesting 

 and instructing the local population, much more will be required. 



For the purposes of general science, and for the use of experts, it is 

 best to keep nearly all museum specimens in drawers and closed cabinets, 

 protected from light, air, and dust ; but for the instruction of the public 

 a considerable number must be displayed in such a manner that they can 

 be seen, studied, and compared without being handled. To do this 

 involves without doubt the sacrifice of many specimens which will be 

 destroyed in a few years by exposure to light and dust, and must be 

 frequently replaced ; and of much money which might be otherwise 

 devoted to the furtherance of scientific investigation. This sacrifice, 

 however, is absolutely necessary. The people who pay for the 

 museum will insist upon its being administered for their direct and 

 immediate benefit, as well as for their indirect advantage through the 

 cultivation of science in its higher branches. And their demand is 

 justifiable. It is as important to social progress that the millions should - 

 be educated as that the few should advance knowledge beyond its existing 

 limits. The ideal Free Rate-supported Museum must do its best in both 

 directions. While therefore a complete collection of all local specimens 

 of a perishable nature must be carefully preserved for reference in closed 

 cabinets, the imperishable ones, such as most geological and archfeological 

 objects, as well as duplicates of those perishable kinds which can be 



