Obituary—The Rev. Henry Hugh Higgins, IA. 381 
in the series exhibited in the Liverpool Free Public Museum, resulted 
from the voyage. This Museum is largely indebted to Mr. Higgins’s 
labours. For a long series of years he. has acted as Chairman of 
the Museum Sub-Committee of Management, and he has besides 
devoted many hours weekly to the classification and arrangement 
of the collections in the possession of the city. In connection with 
this institution Mr. Higgins is the author of three useful handbooks, 
viz.—a “Synopsis of the Invertebrata,” a ‘‘Museum Memorandum 
Book,” and a popular pamphlet entitled “ Museum Talk,” of which 
more than 25,000 copies have been sold at a nominal price in the 
Museum buildings. He has also published an essay on “ Museums 
of Natural History ” (contributed originally to the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of Liverpool, which is replete with practical 
suggestions on museum management and appliances. “The most 
important function of a museum,” states our author in this work, 
is not so much to instruct as to win and encourage minds to get 
themselves instructed through habits of observation.” One of the 
most valuable collections in the Museum is a fine series of Coal 
Measure fossils, collected by Mr. Higgins himself from a railway 
cutting at Ravenhead, near St. Helens. In 1880 he was fortunate 
in securing for the Museum a numerous series of Cirripedes col- 
lected in the ‘“‘ Beagle” by Charles Darwin. These were duplicates 
remaining after Mr. Darwin had (as he states in a letter to Mr. 
Higgins) made the British Museum collection as perfect as he could. 
The system of circulating boxes of museum specimens for use in 
schools was also originated by him. On more than one occasion 
Mr. Higgins has received from admirers of his work testimonials 
showing how greatly his labours have been appreciated. 
Mr. Higgins founded, in the year 1860, the Liverpool Naturalists’ 
Field Club, of which he was President to the last; and he has also 
occupied the presidential chairs of the Literary and Philosophical 
and Microscopical Societies of Liverpool. His contributions to the 
published “Transactions” of these Societies, besides those of other 
similar associations, have been exceedingly numerous. They will be 
found conveniently collected in three 8vo. volumes, under the title 
of “Opuscula,” in the Free Public Library of Liverpool. The 
papers contained in these volumes range in date from 1855 to 
1887, and deal with a variety of scientific subjects in a light and 
pleasing, yet instructive manner. In all his writings, Mr. Higgins 
is a true exponent of the “poetry of science,” which is far too often 
neglected in our modern haste for the rapid acquirement of know- 
ledge—so characteristic a feature of the age in which we live. 
With him originated the idea of sending out preserved specimens 
of various classes of creatures to form the subjects of lessons in 
elementary zoology and botany for schools. This commenced in 
1884, and in the interval, the technical’ education scheme having 
been introduced, these specimens have been found exceedingly 
useful, especially as every one of them bears attached a few short 
notes indicating the outline of a lesson which the teacher has to 
prepare. Proceeding further in this direction, Mr. Higgins quite 
recently projected a popular mineral collection to show how things 
