8 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
facts, of the very high educative value Americans attach to 
these forms of exhibition. 
This section of Museum work was dwelt on in coseianaae 
detail, and it was claimed that from the popular standpoint, 
these ‘‘ group ” exhibits mark a distinct step in Public Museum 
development, for they serve to emphasize the points of greatest 
interest to the general public—what the creatures are, where 
they live and what they do—and they mark a break-away 
from the old-time collection of natural objects arranged 
systematically. A limited amount of systematic arrangement 
-may be necessary, for some idea of system is an essential part 
of scientific education, but the great, view of modern science 
which the general public needs is only in very small part 
taxonomic. 7 
Another development in educative usefulness of the 
Public Museum for the general public is in the appomtment 
of Guide Demonstrators, the movement so _ energetically 
advocated by Lord Sudeley. Jt was in April, 1911, that the 
British Museum organised a system of short lectures and 
demonstrations, open to the public, and with so much success | 
that the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert 
Museum followed in the succeeding year with similar arrange- 
ments, and there is little doubt but that some of the provincial 
Museums would have followed suit had it not been for the war. 
And, without doubt, this is an important step. So many 
persons have neither the opportunity or the desire to become 
serious students, but they take an interest in the advancement 
of Art and Science, and they would lke to obtain some know- 
ledge of the world around them and of bygone history. Thus, 
to this class of the community the Public Museum is increasingly 
becoming a store-house of information. : 
The American Museum of Natural History has a Depart- 
ment of Public Education, organised in 1880 for the purpose 
primarily of familiarizmg the teachers of the Public Schools 
