CXV111 PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
fact that the Museum should be enlarged. When Dr. Buchanan 
White retired from the Presidentship, and when the Society asked 
him (Mr. Coates) to take his place, he brought forward a scheme 
in his opening address for carrying out Dr. White’s ideas of enlarg¬ 
ing the Museum. At that time Dr. Buchanan White said to him 
that if he (Mr. Coates) would undertake to raise the funds for the 
new Museum he was quite willing to undertake the arrangement 
of it, and that he would devote the whole of his time to the work of 
the Museum, and, therefore, a salaried curator would not be necessary. 
Before the Museum was completed Dr. Buchanan White died, and 
they were also aware that before the first Museum was completed 
they lost the services of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe. It must also 
be fresh in their memories that only a few days after the open¬ 
ing of the extended Museum they lost their Honorary Curator, 
Colonel Drummond Hay. In these circumstances it became quite 
necessary for the Society to appoint a skilled curator, with a scientific 
training, at a reasonable salary. That, of course, was an expense 
which they had not anticipated, either when they started their old 
Museum or when it was extended. If Dr. Buchanan White had 
lived and had been able to carry out his intention to act as honor¬ 
ary curator, and give his whole time to the work, this additional 
expense involved would not have been incurred, and the expense 
of coal, gas, etc., in the institution would have been very small 
indeed; but, as he had said, they had the misfortune to lose within 
a very few years a large number of the leaders of their Society. 
They were left in such a position that certainly it was difficult for 
the Society to do otherwise than put the Museum under the charge 
of a salaried curator. No doubt they could go on for a few years 
to come, and they could meet all the expenses so long as they had 
so many public-spirited men in their midst. But they had the future 
to look to. They had spent thirty years in building up this institu¬ 
tion, and it would be extremely unfortunate if in the future that 
institution were to fall into a state such as many other museums 
in the country had fallen into for want of the charge of a competent 
curator. That being the case, their thoughts naturally turned to the 
resource and support which had been found so efficient in other 
towns where museums had been established—he referred to the 
support of the municipal authority. What more thoroughly turned 
their thoughts in that direction was the fact that at the present time 
Perth was going in for a Public Library, and this in other towns 
was worked in conjunction with a Public Museum. It seemed, there¬ 
fore, a fitting time to consider, as a Society, if the time had not 
come when they should hand over their Museum to be administered 
under the Public Libraries and Museums Act along with the Public 
Library. It had been done in many other towns, especially in 
England, but also in Scotland. He had taken the trouble to make 
pretty full inquiry, and he found that in every case where a museum, 
which was at first founded by a private Society, had been handed over 
to the municipality, the results had been extremely satisfactory. They 
had been satisfactory both to the municipality and to the institu¬ 
tions, which had increased in popularity, and been kept in a way 
