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subject, by having numerous specimens conveniently arranged for 

 the scientific naturaHst, which should be kept in separate rooms, 

 and supplemented by books of reference on the particular subjects 

 which the specimens illustrate. The second object should be the 

 instruction and amusement of the numerous class, who, without 

 having leisure or ability to make a profound study of natural 

 history, yet take an interest in it, and wish to possess some know- 

 ledge of the world around them, and the principal actions of nature 



These two ends it was difficult to combine, but it is essential 

 that each specimen should be plainly exhibited and properly- 

 labelled ; indeed, a well arranged educational museum has been 

 defined as " a collection of instructive labels, illustrated by well- 

 selected specimens." Each fragment should be duly described, and 

 its label must set forth, not only its scientific place and value, but 

 also its relation to the specimens which precede and follow it. 



It has been humourously said that "just as in America a pig is 

 put in at one end of a machine, and emerges shortly after in the 

 form of ready packed hams and bacon," so a student may enter, 

 say the mineralogical museum, as ignorant of the properties of 

 stone as are the specimens which meet his gaze, and may leave it 

 with a full knowledge of all that is knowable about mineralogy. 



Professor Flower does not include lectures in the arrangement of 

 his model institute, but there is no reason why oral explanations 

 should be excluded. As the guiding rule should be to extract from 

 any such institution the greatest possible utility, and as the intelli- 

 gence is generally more easily reached by the ear than by the eye, 

 it would seem that a simultaneous appeal to both faculties is the 

 ideal method. 



These are the lines upon which our Folkestone Natural History 

 Society has endeavoured to work, and [ trust that the lectures with 

 which we have tried to supplement the mute teaching of the 

 specimens in our museum have been a source of pleasure and 

 profit to many. 



Mineralogy is, of course, a science to which the labelled specimen 

 readily lends itself as a teacher, but with many other sciences, 

 such as astronomy or physics, this is not the case. Chemistry, 

 again, must be learned almost wholly by oral teaching, illustrated 

 by experiment. Natural history, also, though it affords more 

 readily than any other science specimens for ocular demonstration, 

 can be brought home to the mind of the uninitiated far better by a 

 few words of explanation than by a superficial glance at the natural 

 history cases in our museums. Take, for instance, the study of 

 that marvellous law called " Mimicry in Nature," one of the many 

 interesting facts brought to hght by Charles Darwin in connection 

 with his theory ol the " Survival of the Fittest." No specimen 



