ON THE FORMATION OF LOCAL MUSEUMS. 131 



whilst much of their energy is wasted in learning things which will never 

 avail them in schools for children under twelve or thirteen. Much good 

 might be done by clergymen, if their inclination and taste prompted them 

 to take an interest in these things. The selection and arrangement of 

 specimens require a competent curator, and this office might be conveni- 

 ently filled by the clergyman, or schoolmaster, if he had a knowledge of 

 natural sciences. We ought not to see institutions, capable of carrying out 

 effectively other educational plans, failing in one so important and simple 

 as the formation of a museum. A visit to the South Kensington Museum 

 will afford much useful information to those desirous of forming elementary 

 and industrial collections. 



At the last conference at the Society of Arts, the last subject discussed 

 was, " Whether the institutions should promote the formation of local 

 museums — and, if so, whether these museums might not easily, and with 

 advantage, be made to represent the productions of the locality, instead of 

 being of the heterogeneous character often given to them." Institutions 

 should promote the formation of museums — they rna3>- easily be made to 

 represent the productions of the locality — and they ought not to be made 

 too miscellaneous. In connection with the short discussion which then 

 ensued, I will make a few observations. In Alton, where we possess a good 

 educational museum of natural history, we have never adopted the Local 

 Museums Act, because the sum so raised would not be sufficient of itself — 

 because we feared that a public rate would be an excuse for withholding 

 private aid — and because, worked in connection with the other objects of 

 the Mechanics' Institution, we did not require additional means of support. 



In the discussion, one of the speakers questioned the utility of museums, 

 and said that, to be of any educational value, they can be formed only in 

 larger towns. I entirely dissent from this. If museums are, as he added, 

 most miserable specimens of decay, it is because the public, and promoters 

 of mechanics' institutions generally, are not sufficiently alive to the vast 

 importance of teaching by the eye. 



The same speaker also advocated impromptu museums. These I regard 

 as valuable only as getting up a temporary excitement for a special purpose 

 — as giving life to conversazioni, &c. But I attach the greatest importance 

 to the remark made by Mr. Harry Chester on that occasion — that local 

 museums would be of no value unless they were permanent, and the speci- 

 mens properly classified and labelled. 



There would be no objection to the exhibition of miscellaneous articles, 

 if kept apart (in a separate room if possible) from the scientific collections, 

 for many would be enticed into a museum more by them than by natural 

 productions arranged in strict educational order. 



Suggestions respecting Provincial Museums. — The objects of provincial 

 museums should be : — 1st. To make complete collections of local natural 

 history in every department — mineral, vegetable, and animal — of local arts 

 and manufactures, produce, imports, and exports — and of local antiquities — 

 also to record local natural phenomena. 2nd. To have as complete a 



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