892 REPORT—1904. 
followed by adjournment to the museum. Every museum should be 
associated with a theatre provided with lantern and other necessary appli- 
ances. The interest of the museum-question in connection with the 
Delegates at this Conference seemed to centre in the point of contact 
between the local museum and the local Society. How could the one assist 
the other? The speaker referred to the excellent practice in certain 
museums of exhibiting fresh wild flowers with instructive labels—a source 
of much interest to young visitors. This, he held, was a department of 
work which could well be undertaken by the local Natural History Society. 
Ladies of leisure, taking an intelligent interest in botany, might assist the 
curator by undertaking to contribute a constant supply of fresh specimens 
and to furnish them with appropriate labels. Such labels, judiciously 
written, might convey much useful knowledge in a pleasant form, and 
would be read and copied by intelligent children. Although it is a great 
thing to bring the children to the museum, it must be remembered that 
there is another aspect of the question : the museum may be taken with 
excellent results to the children. He therefore advocated the circulation 
of small loan-cabinets of simple specimens—which might be arranged and 
distributed by the Natural History Society to the schools. The local 
Society might do much to relieve the curator, who was generally much over- 
worked and very much under-paid. Every effort to increase the useful- 
ness of the museum laid additional work upon his shoulders; and the 
speaker was glad that Mr. Johnson had proposed that museum-demonstra- 
tions to schools should be adequately paid for. 
Mr. Hopkinson referred to the Hertfordshire County Museum. At 
least one half of the 200 or 300 visitors per week were school children. 
They came in from the Board schools during meal-times, and quickly 
detected any additions made to the collections, which showed that they 
took avery great interest in the museum. Sometimes they brought all 
sorts of things they had collected, but at first almost worthless. For 
instance, they brought shells with the living animals in them. They 
were then instructed how to remove them, and were now bringing clean 
shells and sometimes really good specimens of the different varieties of 
land mollusca. This showed how a museum would attract children, and 
no doubt produce good educational results. 
The Rey. R. Ashington Bullen observed that, in the little parish 
where he lived, about a quarter of an acre of land was rented and the 
children were being taught agricultural pursuits. He did not think that 
they must take a pessimistic view of the education of the children in the 
country districts, for he believed that a great deal was going on there 
about which people in general know nothing. 
Mr. Whitaker remarked that, being lately in a little village in Shrop- 
shire, he had a conversation with a woman who told him that they 
encouraged the children not only to collect, but to bring in objects to 
the school, where they were kept in a case for a certain time. It occurred 
to him that this was an excellent method of interesting the children and 
developing a taste for museums. 
