CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 123
his remarks, Sir John Evans said he thought the keepers of the
various departments of the British Museum would be found
admirable referees in such matters.
Mr. Peek considered that the leading feature of an unattractive
museum was a dusty stagnation. Such a museum became almost as
much fossilised as the fossils it contained ; its labels were either
illegible from age or invisible from displacement. Those who
casually entered such museums seldom revisited them. Some
variation in the aspect of a museum was itself an attraction. It
was most desirable that the English as well as the Latin name of a
specimen should be given. Much might be done to allow of com-
parisons between creatures of different families or genera. Thus, at
the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, the skeletons of a
man and of a horse had recently been placed, the one in front of the
other, in the attitude of running, so that the relations of the two,
bone for bone, could be distinctly seen.
Museum demonstrations, though of the highest value, could only,
he thought, be really useful to a few persons at a time. It was
desirable that the demonstrator should be placed on a temporary
stand so that he might see, and be seen by, his audience.
Lastly, he touched upon the relations between museums and
County Councils, remarking that it had always appeared to him that
demonstrations in museums should take a very prominent part in
technical education, especially in rural districts, and he had been
surprised that so little assistance had been given in aid of local
collections by County Councils. In order to ascertain what had
been done he had sent out a circular to County Council Technical
Education Committees, and had found that local museums and free
libraries had been assisted in only nine cases. The County Council
of Cumberland had been the most liberal, having made a grant of
£600 per annum during the last three years for the purpose of aiding
the Corporation of Carlisle to erect a Museum, Free Library, and
Art School. A grant had also been made to a Free Library at
Whitehaven for the purchase of books for the use of students at
Technical Instruction classes ; and a grant of £200 per annum had
been given to the Local Board of Millom in aid of the Free Library
and Technical School at that town. Passing over grants to Free
Libraries, and for the purchase of technical books in various counties,
it appeared that in Surrey it was proposed to found a Museum in
connection with buildings for technical education, and a reference