128 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
OPENING MUSEUMS ON SUNDAY. 
BY Coit, C, C, GRAnn 
Read before the Geological Section of the Hamilton Scientific 
Association, February 27, 1903. 
Although the writer feels the old puritanical element is 
too powerful at present in the Province to permit the opening 
of museums on Sunday to the public, I may be permitted to 
call attention to the following remarks of the late Director of 
the Dominion Geological Survey (Dr. Selwin), which have 
been extracted from “The Summary Report for 1892,” and 
which probably are unknown to many residing in the locality: 
“Tn my Summary Report for 1885 I called attention to the 
question of opening the Museum on Sunday afternoons, and | 
then gave some very remarkable statistics of attendance, the re- 
sult of this course having been adopted by ‘The Australian 
Museum’ in Sydney, showing that on the 52 Sunday after- 
noons only, the daily attendance was largely in excess of that 
of the 313 week days, the average being 986 on Sundays and 
275 on week days. Such a fact needs no comment, and I ven- 
ture again to express a hope, in the interest of education and 
knowledge, that the time is not remote when a similar experi- 
ment will be tried in Ottawa. There will doubtless be strong 
objections urged against such action, based chiefly, if not en- 
tirely, on the very erroneous, but unfortunately very prevalent 
idea, that the museum is a place of amusement, whereas it is 
essentially a place of instruction, as is the church and Sunday 
school; and the principal difference between the two, concisely 
stated, is that in the museum the work, and in the church and 
school the word of the Creator is expounded. This admitted, 
there seems no obvious, or intelligible reason why the one es- 
tablishment should be closed and the other opened on the Sab- 
bath. Since the foregoing was written I have sought opin- 
ions on the subject, and I have been much gratified to find such 
