184 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
without further enquiry, as unbelievers generally do, he examined, 
was convinced, became interested, began collecting, and he — a 
hand in a cotton mill — devoted his early mornings and his late 
evenings to collection and study, and became a geologist. Not 
only did he make a good collection of fossils as he found them, 
but in order to ascertain the structure of coal plants, he made sec- 
tions by rubbing the specimens down on the kitchen floor, then, 
cementing them to glass, ground them down again until suitable 
for the purpose. And further — it was necessary that he should 
have a microscope to examine what he had so carefully and at the 
expenditure of so much labour prepared. To purchase one was 
out of the question, but he was able to buy the lenses, and making 
the tubes himself, constructed an instrument which answered every 
purpose. Nor was the collection and examination of specimens 
by any means the end of this man's work. His collection of fossils, 
with another made by a friend of his under similar circumstances, 
furnished the materials on which Professor W. C. Williamson has 
to a great extent founded his admirable Memoirs on the Coal Plants, 
published by the Eoyal Society. And this is only one illustration 
out of many that might be adduced. And what have Ave provided, 
what has Plymouth done, to assist such a man as James Whittaker? 
What has she done to aid in work like this ? All honour to the 
Plymouth Institution for having for so many years maintained 
with such funds the Museum it has, but little credit to Plymouth 
and the neighbourhood to allow it, now in the year of grace 1879, 
to remain the only one for the instruction of so large a population. 
This is a matter upon which I feel very strongly, and on which 
I am sure every thinking man will agree with me. The absence 
of such a Museum, and the reasons for such absence, furnish 
food for serious thought. They seem to indicate a want of appre- 
ciation, on the part of those whose business it is to provide for the 
well-being of those around them, of the responsibility of the posi- 
tions they occupy. 
A great step has been taken lately, and the success of the Free 
Library is now assured. This success was accomplished in spite of 
opposition, of which, as a Plymouth man, I am heartily ashamed. 
But the fact of the establishment of this Free Library should 
encourage perseverance in an attempt to secure a Museum with (for 
teaching is an absolutely necessary accoinpaniment) Science and 
Art schools attached. It is much to be regretted that some in- 
