THE PUBLIC MUSEUM AND EDUCATION. 7 
British Association meeting*, held in Birmingham in the same 
year. This group is still in existence, and, although duplicated 
by a newer and more up-to-date one, is still on exhibition. 
Here, as in so many other directions, although England 
is the pioneer, she has allowed other countries to outstrip her. 
In Great Britain we have been content to stop at mammals 
and birds, and few attempts have been made here to extend 
“oroups” to other animal divisions. It is in America that 
we find the greatest development of group making. The 
American has been quick to realise the great educational 
possibilities of Museum groups in clutching the imagination 
of the Museum visitor, and no expense has been spared in 
extending and perfecting their production. After mammals 
came anything that the American taxidermist or modeller 
could master—reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects and other 
invertebrates, and last of all plants which, when copied by 
their modern methods, are ever green, and may be made to 
show their adaptations to environment and _ inter-relation 
to varying conditions of soil, climate and surroundings. 
Details were given and illustrations shown of a number 
of the more modern American “ Habitat’? Groups which may 
now be seen in the American Museum of Natural History, 
New York, and other American Museums, where by the aid of 
enlarged lantern transparencies, painted panoramic back- 
grounds connected with the foreground, rounded corners and 
overhead lighting, which permit the last touches in the way 
of illusion and control of light regardless of the time of day, ana 
produce effects which, to say the least, are extremely striking. 
The creation of such groups must require a large number 
of assistants, practically skilled in various directions, in order 
to carry out the injunctions of the scientists of the staff. 
Obviously both time and money must be lavishly spent so as 
to arrive at the state of perfection suggested by these descrip- 
tions. Some estimate may be formed, when we consider these 
* Report of the British Association, 1865, Miscellaneous communications, 
p. 92. 
