^(5 Dr. Scharff on 



in itself a work ofart, based on a natural substratum. In few branches 

 of museum work had there been greater progress of late years than 

 in this, and few offered still further scope for development. 

 Now, the direct benefit of a complete collection of specimens 

 illustrating the fauna and flora of the district in which the 

 provincial museum was situated was obvious, and could not be 

 exaggerated. The pursuit of collecting and studying natural history 

 objects gave to the persons who were inclined to devote their 

 leisure hours to it a beneficial training for whatever their real 

 calling in life might be. They acquired a sense of order and 

 method, they developed their gift of observation and they were 

 stimulated to healthy exercise. Nothing encouraged them in this 

 pursuit more than a well-warned and easily accessible collection 

 in their native town, on which they could fall back as a pattern 

 and an aid for their own. A good series of the local rocks, 

 minerals, and fossils was also most desirable, for they should 

 always bear in mind that the principal aim of a provincial museum 

 ought to be popular instruction. A great many other subjects 

 might be suitably illustrated if the necessary space were available. 

 To give an object lesson of the gradual growth and evolution of 

 the town or city in which the museum was situated would not 

 only be instructive, but it would tend to rouse an interest among 

 the citizens in the problems of the future expansion and what had 

 been called " town-planning." The various features connected 

 with the water supply, lighting, and disposal of sewage were all 

 capable of illustration in a museum. The construction of roads 

 in ancient and modern times was beautifully shown by models in 

 the great Bavarian Science Museum at Munich, as well as the 

 various systems of water-supply, heating and lighting. Almost 

 to every industry one or more rooms had been devoted in 

 this splendidly-equipped building, and immense sums were being 

 spent annually in the Bavarian capital to keep the museums up to 

 a high standard of efficiency. As regarded art objects, the 

 tendency in foreign museums was to display them now in quite a 



