ON THE PBOVINCIAL MUSEUMS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 127 



readily replaced, must be displayed in glazed cases for the inspection of 

 the public. 



The difficult question here arises : In what manner shall this display 

 be carried out so as to secure the maximum of instruction with the 

 minimum of expense, and so as to make the museum attractive and inte- 

 resting, yet not a place for mere idle amusement ? 



The Rev. H. H. Higgins, in his pamphlet on ' Museums of Natural 

 History,' has pointed out that the public who visit museums may be 

 divided into three classes, viz. : (1) Those who are already interested in 

 science and come for information. (2) Those who have enough general 

 culture to wish for more, and who come in the hope of learning some- 

 thing. (3) The very ignorant, who care only to be amused. To these 

 classes he gives the appropriate designations of Students, Observers, and 

 Loungers. Of the weekly visitors to a popular museum, the students 

 probably do not form more than 5 per cent., the observers perhaps 75, 

 and the loungers 20 per cent. It is obvious that, neglecting altogether 

 the small proportion of loungers, a great deal may be done for the 

 scientific instruction of those who come prepared to take intelligent 

 interest in what they see. 



The value of scientific instruction lies mainly (1) in the insight which 

 it gives into the laws and processes of nature, thus greatly enlargino- the 

 mental purview ; (2) in its training of the senses by the habit of accurate 

 observation, and of the reasoning powers by the tracing out of causes 

 and effects ; (3) in its revelation of facts which may be turned to man's 

 practical advantage. 



In placing any scientific collections before the public with an educa- 

 tional object, all these points should be borne in mind. Accurate 

 observation is to be cultivated chiefly by frequent comparisons of allied 

 forms, and when a series of such comparisons reveals the lines of change, 

 and the large effects of many small changes, the intellectual faculties are 

 stimulated to investigate the forces which have been in operation. 



Comparison, therefore, should be made easy, and the observer should 

 be led up to the groupings and the lines of divergence in each depart- 

 ment, and induced to look back into the past history and forward into 

 the future prospects of the earth and its various inhabitants. 



For these purposes it is not enough to place in the cases rows of 

 specimens with their names and localities only. The natural groupings 

 must be very conspicuously marked, and their points of connection and 

 of divergence very clearly indicated. Attention must be drawn to the 

 special characters of families, genera, and species, to geographical distri- 

 bution, and to the varied aspects of nature in different localities. 



The method of labelling in a public museum is of vital importance, 

 and should receive the fullest attention of the curator. If a label contains 

 too much, it will not be read ; if it contains too little, its purpose is not 

 effected. The titles of the large groups should be visible at some 

 distance ; their limits and their subdivisions should be so marked as to 

 be very easily grasped by the mind of the observer. If Greek or Latin 

 terms are used in these titles, English equivalents, wherever it is possible, 

 should be added. Probably it is wiser at the present time to place the 

 English first. 



Nature draws no hard and fast line between the life of past ages and 

 of the present epoch. The organic world is a continuous current, and to 

 separate palaeontology from biology cannot represent the actual facts in 



