ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
243
application of foreign raw materials ; and would thus completely
illustrate the industries which are carried on within the limits of the
district.
Whilst we should patriotically aspire to render the local collec-
tions as perfect as possible, I would not, by any means, have the
usefulness of the museum stop here. Comparing any local collection
with a general collection, it will of course be found that many
important groups of animals, vegetables, and minerals are but
imperfectly represented, whilst others are altogether blank. There
is, consequently, great danger of very limited and inadequate notions
of the great system of Nature being formed by the student who con
fines his attention to local natural history. It was the fundamental
fault of Werner's system of geology, that he supposed all the world
to be modelled after the pattern of the kingdom of Saxony. A
student confining his studies to [Essex] natural history would be in
danger of contracting equally narrow and vitiated views. To
counteract such a tendency, it is eminently desirable to form, under
proper conditions, a general collection which will give the visitor
some notion of, at any rate, the larger groups in which natural bodies
are classified. Just as every scientific man should strive to acquire
a mastery over some special branch of science, however small, and,
at the same time, have a general knowledge of science as wide as
possible ; so, it seems to me, every provincial museum should aim
at illustrating thoroughly the natural history of its locality, whilst it
offers, as far as its resources allow, a superficial though sound view
of nature in its entirety. There should consequently be two depart-
ments to our central museum—one local, and the other general—
each with distinct aims, and each appealing to a distinct class of
visitors.2 Differing thus in their objects, it would be well to keep
the two departments entirely apart, as is done, for example, in the
Worcester Museum, where a special room is devoted to the illustra-
tions of the natural history of the county. Whilst our local collection
would certainly give value to the museum in the eyes of genuine
students of science, who would be attracted thither by the oppor-
tunity of taking a complete survey of [Essex] natural history, it is
probable, on the other hand, that the general collection would form
the chief source of interest to the casual visitor and less-advanced
student. But this general collection must be kept within moderate
2 The Educational Series in the proposed Essex Museum would admirably fulfil Mr.
Rudler's requirements.—Ed.