256 ON THE AIMS AND USES OF PROVINCIAL MUSEUMS,
"Scottish Naturalist," N.S., vol. 1.(1883-84). From the success of
that museum, we may learn also how short a time is necessary to
enable a society, when really in earnest, to bring into existence
collections that would be creditable as the result of many years'
work, instead of being formed in two or three.
But let us turn now to the educational value of a museum from
another, and not less important, point of view. It ought not merely
to convey to visitors a correct idea of the leading facts in science, but
also to facilitate the study of the productions—animal, vegetable, and
mineral—of the surrounding district; so that each one, studying it
matters not what special group in that locality, should be able to find
in it a full record of what has been already done in that group by his
predecessors in the locality, and should be induced to add to that
record by extending the collections in the department in which he is
himself proficient. By such a combination of general facts, with
minute accuracy in such details as can be verified by each thorough
worker, it is alone possible to make a museum a valuable addition to
the teaching resources of the place in which it is. Then only can it
be expected to lead others to become naturalists—not mere collectors,
solicitous only to accumulate a miscellaneous mass of what, to them-
selves as well as to others, is little better than rubbish. Not the
mere amount accumulated, but the success with which the lessons
to be taught may be drawn from the collections displayed in it, consti-
tutes a museum worthy of the name. And how much can be learned
from a thoroughly equipped museum can be appreciated only after
spending a considerable time in the study of the objects in one so
equipped.
To the scientific visitor the advantage is not less than to the
residents in visiting a museum of the kind we have been advocating
the establishment of in provincial towns. There are many questions
of the utmost interest connected with the distribution of the fauna
and the flora of any country, and the variations that species undergo
in different localities. The causes of these variations, and peculiari-
ties in distribution, may frequently be solved by a comparison of
good collections from a number of localities, differing from one
another in soil, in climate, in exposure, and in many other particulars ;
and often a single district will afford localities varying widely from
one another in all these conditions. For example, the provinces
that have been proposed as natural divisions of Scotland—e.g., Tay
or Dee—contain in themselves districts varying in soil, in altitude,