254 ON THE AIMS AND USES OF PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS,
cised in forming the original plan, its success and usefulness chiefly
depend ; and much labour is necessary before it can be brought into
the right track, should it have been begun on a wrong one.
It is very desirable that there should be, at least, one large and
complete museum in the most accessible centre for the whole coun-
try ; and in this museum should be contained collections of the ut-
most possible completeness, in all departments of Natural Science.
In no way can specialists work out the details in the study of which
they are engaged unless they have access to the material supplied by
large collections and a complete library; and to provide these for
themselves, even in a very limited subject, is not only beyond the
means of most, but is practically beyond the power of the wealthiest,
since many of the specimens and of the books required are to be
found only in public collections and libraries. The British Museum
is one of the best examples of a museum, in which local must be
subordinated to general collections, and where both these and the
national library afford every facility that can be obtained by special-
ists in Great Britain.
But such a museum as this must stand alone in a country, as a
national undertaking ; through a few large towns may follow with
museums on similar lines, however far behind. For provincial
museums in general to aim at such completeness is simply to ensure
utter and deserved failure. The expense involved in providing
buildings, and in forming and keeping up the collections, would be
far beyond the means of any town, however wealthy; nor are more
than a very few such museums required in a country.
The educational value of a Provincial Natural History Museum
to the residents in the locality depends upon the care with which the
specimens in it have been chosen to display readily the important
characters of structure and distribution of the great groups of animals
and plants, and the great facts in the sciences of geology and miner-
alogy. These great general facts are rendered clear to students, and
to the non-scientific public, far more successfully by well-selected series
including comparatively few types, than they could be by loading the
shelves with very large series of each group. Now, it is only educa-
tional series of this kind that are required for the representation of the
Natural History of the world in provincial museums. Efforts to go
much beyond this are likely rather to diminish than to increase their
usefulness, and add much to the expense incurred in sustaining the
museum. Valuable and extensive collections in special departments