274 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1920. 



Instruments ot researcli will be required, such as microscope, preparatory 

 and developing' tools, photographic appliances, &c. Everything which the 

 researcher requires for the thorough prosecution ot his studies ought to be at 

 hand. 



The needs of the researcher at a distance entail less caJQs upon the staff, and 

 are usually restricted to the loan of specimens, plaster casts, and full details 

 of provenance, &c. 



'I'he University Student. — Under this head we include the students of all 

 advanced training institutions, whether University or not. Where calls are 

 many, and on similar lines, it may be possible to form special ' Students' Series,' 

 from which the student can gain a practical knowledge of his subject. Either 

 lack or excess of material beyond what is absolutely required is a disadvantage. 

 The material will be chosen for its instructive value, not for its attractiveness. 

 A special Student Series can be kept on exhibition, from which it is not 

 removable, or in cabinets, so that its use throws no additional work upon the 

 curator. Special Student Series should be available for use by the lecturers 

 to advanced students, as well as by the students themselves. If required in 

 the lecture-room, the collection should be kept in drawers, and not exhibited, 

 unless special rooms, not open to the general public, are provided. Exhibited 

 series, which have been specially selected, arranged, and labelled in the public 

 exhibition cases, at times fall under the head of Special Students' Series. These 

 collections should have references to the literature dealing with the subject. 

 The arrangements should allow students to use note-books, or a small table. 

 Most, if not all, of the specimens in the series will have to be handled by the 

 student, and numbers corresponding to a catalogue list should be painted or 

 otherwise fixed upon each. 



University students frequently work in pairs, or small numbers, and need 

 to have several specimens before them at a time. Suitable rooms must, therefore, 

 be provided for their special use. 



There remains the larger question of co-operation between the University 

 and the Museum. The public Museums in most of the University towns are 

 large and well provided with collections, in which there is a considerable store 

 of material suitable for research. The staffs usually include one or more trained 

 scientific men, and more such are being attracted to permanent Museum work. 

 We believe that, with good will and intelligent co-operation between the 

 University and the Museum, difficulties will disappear, to the great gain of 

 both institutions. For University professors to restrict themselves to a Museum 

 of their own is to restrict themselves and their students to a limited field of 

 observation and research, as the public Museum is always likely to contain 

 and receive more material in any subject than the University is normally 

 likely to acquire. The curator, on the other hand, must conserve, suitably 

 labelled, and keep in good order, extensive collections which are of primary 

 value both for teaching and research. Mutual aid cannot fail to bring in good 

 results. The professorial staff of the University can help by furnishing scientific 

 or artistic knowledge, and by supplying dissections, prepared in the laboratories. 

 They can assist the curator in the preparation of exhibition groups of current 

 scientific importance, and can in turn profit by a first-hand acquaintance with 

 material in sections of their own science, which may not fall within the range 

 of their ordinary professorial teaching. 



Such a co-operation is merely extending to independent Museums what is 

 already done in those directly connected with a University, as at Oxford, 

 Cambridge, Liverpool, and Manchester. It is, however, in the United States 

 that the best examples of co-operation are seen. (See Appendix I.) 



The advantages of this intercourse are many. Expense is shared instead 

 of duplicated, and through the intermediary of the Museum the public is 

 brought into close contact with the higher seats of learning. The Museum 

 comes into its rightful place in the fighting-line of science, and the student 

 comes face to face with actual problems and gets a close grip of coimected 

 facts; he in fact does work under more real conditions than in the forcing 

 house, or laboratory. But the student, too, may fairly be asked to help by 

 doing some curatorial work. Instead of disarranging and damaging Museum 

 specimens, let the post-graduate prepare, determine, label, and arrange a limited 



