A PLEA FOR NATURAL H/STORY MUSEUMS. 64S 



SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. 



A PLEA FOR NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



BY PROF. S. H. TROWBRIDGE. 



In a previous article,* the absolute necessity of natural objects for the pur- 

 poses of school and college instruction was set forth in the words of practical and 

 experienced men who had every opportunity to know whereof they affirmed. In 

 this, I shall attempt to show, by a somewhat similar array of authorities, their 

 value to the community at large, and especially to thoughtful persons who have 

 gone beyond the education of the schools. 



To the increasing number of those who give especial attention to the study 

 of science, the effort to impress the importance of natural history collections may 

 seem superfluous. Not so, however, to those who teach it. And while there is 

 a more or less vague idea in the minds of many that the study of nature has in it 

 somewhat of interest and a little of profit, something more is needed to give its value 

 greater prominence and make more real and tangible its interest. There are too 

 much pleasure and profit in it to be lost for the mere lack of a little appreciation, 

 when this can be so readily acquired. The fact that the State of Massachusetts 

 and the friends of the Museum of Comparative Zoology have contributed over 

 a million dollars to this means of popular instruction ; that a vast amount has 

 been devoted to the Museum of Natural History in Central Park, New York, and 

 also to the National Museum at Washington ; that museums of varying size and 

 value are accessible to the public in all the best universities and colleges of the 

 land ; and that zoological gardens, at great expense, are founded, maintained and 

 well patronized, in most of our large cities, shows that there is some popular ap- 

 preciation of such collections. Showmen, like Barnum and others, know, from 

 the popular interest in animals, how profitable paid exhibitions of them in 

 museums and menageries are. And even circus managers are shrewd enough to 

 anticipate the public taste and provide for its gratification by attaching menage- 

 rries to their performances, in order to attract those who crave something more 

 profitable and instructive than mere amusements, as well as to give moral weight 

 to a business sadly in need of it. 



The safety of our land is in the education of its people. But interest and 

 attention must first be excited before the mind can receive and comprehend valu- 

 able information. One's interest in any object is just in proportion to what he 

 Icnows of it and does for it. Ancient Rome had her baths and gymnasia for the 

 benefit of her people, and the national games of the Greeks were instituted for a 



■:"This Review, October 1881. " Science Teaching." 



