CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 789 



in this way it may reasonably be hoped that a more and more comprehensive 

 study of our leadi'iig cities and city-regions may before long be in active pro- 

 gress, and from all points of view. As regards co-operation with these surveys by 

 museums and local natural history societies, particulars can be obtained from 

 Mr. R. Maynard, the Curator of the Museum, Saffron Walden, Essex. 



Alderman Arthur Bennett (Warrington Society) said that he should like 

 to emphasise in the strongest possible way the desirability of securing and pre- 

 serving cinema fihns of all important local and national events, which, if they 

 could be made suffic iently permanent, would be of lasting historical value. He 

 also cordially agreed with Professor Geddes in his plea for a civic survey of 

 every town and district in the country. The Chairman might be interested 

 to know that Dr. Percival and Dr. Barnes, who were largely in.strumental in 

 forming the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, were born in 

 Warrington, and that Warrington could boast the earliest free rate-supported 

 museum and library in the United Kingdom, both of which were singularly rich 

 in local relics. The Society he represented, in addition to its various other 

 objects, existed to maintain the Warrington Academy as a local museuni spe- 

 cially devoted to the commemoration of the golden age of Warrington's history, 

 and "its collection was limited to books, pictures, and relics which were either 

 directly associated with the Academy or rellected lustre on the annals of the 

 town. He believed that there was ample room, in many places, for specialised 

 local museums on these lines. 



Mr. F. W. Ash (North Staffordshire Field Club) said that local museums 

 might be divided into two classes, the objects of which are largely opposite. 

 In the one kind the exhibits have local relations, but are for the benefit of 

 visitors and the general public (example : a local archjeological collection). In 

 the other kind the collection may be of a ijenvral nature, and intended for 

 the benefit of local students (example : a natural history collection. It is ques- 

 tionable if any particular purpose is served (in many cases) by a zoological 

 collection limited to specimens from a political boundary such as that of a 



count V. . . 



Mr. Collin Brooks (Southport Literary and Philosophical Society) said that 

 the point which struck him, as representing a philosophical society not con- 

 cerned with experimental or pure science, was that the majority of local museums 

 were the property of a township, and, reverting to .lohn Ruskin's analogj', in 

 considering the collection as the possession of an individuality, the centralisation 

 of exhibits to a national museum was hardly a right or sound procedure. There 

 was some danger of a mistake in phraseology, the meaning of the words ' the 

 advancement of science ' was ambiguous. They of the British Association 

 construed it into the advancement of the results of science : a township, he 

 imat'ined, would merely interpret it as the broadening of the basis and member- 

 ship'' of their scientific community. As one not personally concerned in museum 

 control, he was strongly in favour of the decentralisation of exhibits to purely 

 local habitations. 



Mr. William Whitaker was of opinion that the division of museums into 

 national and local is hardly enough. There is a great class between, consisting 

 of the museums of great towns, which, though not national, are by no means 

 merely local. 



Mrs. Forbes Julian (Torquay Natural History Society) also spoke. 



The Chairman (Institute of Mining Engineers) stated that, during his term 

 of office as Chairman of the Trustees of the Calcutta Museum, the question of 

 balancing the claims of a national, as against those of in-ovincial, museums passed 

 through an acute stage; and, according to the lessons then learnt, he considered 

 that any provincial museum should be permitted to retain valuable specimens, 

 including 'types,' whenever, in the opinion of the ;Museums Association, its 

 government and curatorship are satisfactorily stable. It would be quite easy to 

 define and to enforce, by periodical inspection, a satisfactory standard of manage- 

 ment. Local authorities should be given to understand tliat unique and reference 

 specimens are not their private property, but that they are trustees responsible 

 to the scientific world. So long as the safety of a reference specimen be reason- 

 ably assured it should not be removed from the local muf=eum ; for local pride, 

 due to the possession of valuable materials, helps the healthy spread of interest 



