70 THE LOCAL MUSEUM, LABORATORY, AND LIBRARY.
This is quite as true (if not more so) in agriculture as in manufactures." Lord
Reay (late Governor of Bombay) wrote : "To my great regret I cannot be present
on Wednesday, as I have promised to attend another meeting at that hour. The
scheme for technical instruction has evidently been drawn up with great knowledge
and care. I should have been prepared to support, warmly, its main features. It
will fructify elementary education, and enhance its value and appreciation in rural
districts, which stand more in need of technical instruction than the manufacturing
districts, because agricultural pursuits open a wider field of observation than the
supervision of even the most intricate machinery. I wish all success to your
undertaking."
Mr. Ed. Fitch (President of the Essex Field Club), read the scheme for the
amalgamation of the Essex and Chelmsford Museum with the Essex Field Club,
and for the establishment of a Local (Essex) Museum Laboratory and Library,
which had been agreed to by the two bodies (the scheme is fully set out in the
last volume of the Essex Naturalist, vol. iv., pp. 236-241).
[In the circular calling the meeting the following summary was given of the scheme, and of the
advantages to be derived from such an institution as that proposed to be founded : "It is pro-
posed, under an agreement for the amalgamation of the two above-named Societies, to establish
in Chelmsford (chosen not only as the County Town, but also as being a central position in Essex)
a Public (Free) Museum, to illustrate the natural productions, the geology and physiography,
and the industries and manufactures of Essex, together with an Educational Series of specimens
and preparations, which may be employed for teaching purposes. The Museum will also contain
a Library of books, maps, Parliamentary papers, pictures, &c., treating of the natural history,
geology, topography, history, and industries of Essex, as well as a general library of books, neces-
sary for the study of the before-mentioned subjects.
" It is submitted that the Museum, Laboratories, and Library at Chelmsford will be of great
utility, not only to Naturalists and Students of Science, but also to the inhabitants of the county
at large, to Farmers Gardeners, Fishermen, &c., and to Members of the County Council, County
Officers and others, desirous of obtaining accurate information about Essex, its natural produc-
tions and industries, and also as affording facilities for any special technical investigations in
the subjects above-mentioned.
" The benefit to be derived from the establishment of local museums as educational agencies is
being very widely recognised ; the British Association for the Advancement of Science appointed
a committee to consider the subject, valuable reports being issued in 1887 and 1888. In 1889
Prof. Flower chose Museums as a principal theme of his Presidential Address to the Association,
and in speaking of the value of Local Museums referred especially to that 'numerous class, and
one which it may be hoped will year by year bear a greater relative proportion to the general
population of the country, who, without having the time, the opportunities, or the abilities to
make a profound study of any branch of science, yet take a general interest in its progress, and
wish to possess some knowledge of the world around them. . . . For such persons museums may
be, when well organised and arranged, of benefit to a degree that at present can scarcely be
realised.'
" Of the scientific value of local museums nothing need be said—their importance is fully recog-
nised by all competent to judge. Mr. F. T. Mott, Secretary of the British Association Com-
mittee on Provincial Museums, has well said : ' very provincial museum which undertakes to do
its proper work for the nation at large must set itself to collect and record every natural fact in every
branch of science within the area of its own special district. It must waste no energy upon any-
thing outside of this district, but within it everything must be done as completely and rapidly as
possible. The museum must be a scientific monograph of the district, illustrated by actual
specimens of the natural and artificial products of that district.....If every district in the
kingdom were thus worked up, many scientific problems which are now insoluble would become
plain, and the local museums are the institutions most capable of accomplishing this object.'
The Essex Field Club, with its large body of expert naturalists and its serial publications, is
quite capable on carrying on such a work."]
Mr. F. Chancellor, J.P., moved the first resolution, as follows :—
"That, in the opinion of this meeting, the proposals put forward by the Joint
Committee of the Essex Field Club and the Essex and Chelmsford Museum for the
establishment of a Local Museum, Laboratory, and Library, is worthy cf the
support of the county, and this meeting pledges itself to do all in its power to
promote the same."
In the course of his remarks Mr. Chancellor mentioned that the present
Chelmsford Museum was founded more than fifty years ago, and although, like
most local museums belonging to a former age, it contained a good deal of what
scientific men would call rubbish, it also contained many things of value and