326 OPENING OF THE ESSEX MUSEUM, ETC.
be able to turn for reference and information. So also with the history of
early man in Britain. What more appropriate home for the rare specimens
of his handiwork in the way of weapons, ornaments, pottery, &c., than the
museum of the district in which such relics are found ? All this and much
more than I can ever tell you of is no doubt quite familiar to all members of
the Essex Field Club, but I have ventured to state the case for local museums
again because to-day we inaugurate a departure in the management of such
museums, which is somewhat novel in the history of similar undertakings.
The associations of a County Museum with a Technical Institute is a kind of
alliance which cannot but prove most helpful to both. For while those who
are responsible for the contents of the museum, the naturalists, have a very
large task before them to supply the series of specimens required to represent
the county flora and fauna, &c., the West Ham Council supplies that guaran-
tee of permanence without which local enthusiasm in all museums is apt to
die out. Mr. Passmore Edwards may feel assured that his munificence will
prove fruitful for the future, while the naturalists may go to work with re-
doubled zeal in order to assist in filling the cabinets with collections worthy
of their Country and their Club. (Loud applause.)
In another way also does this association of the museum with the
institute appear to be a beneficial one. The students attending the classes of
such an Institute as this are for the most part engaged in studying those
sciences which are classed under the general term "physical," viz., physics,
chemistry, engineering, and so forth. The existence in the same building of a
museum in which may be seen the various animals and plants which inhabit
the county may serve as an incentive for some among them to enlarge the
scope of their studies in that direction—in the direction of "natural" as
distinguished from "physical" science, and so to enter upon leisure-time
pursuits which are as healthy physically as they are mentally. For, indeed,
there is no antagonism between the various departments of nature ; all is one
"harmonious whole," and there is no reason why the most expert electrician,
or chemist, or engineer, among us should not be able to look with intelligent
interest upon nature's handiwork, and to follow in the footsteps of the wise
king, who "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto
the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; he spake also of beasts, and of
fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." In other words I wish to insist
upon the educational value of a museum such as that which we are inaugu-
rating. It is true that the development of the museum on purely educational
lines will require new and somewhat costly sets of preparations, but it is
evident that a museum so happily connected with a technical institute as our
Essex Field Club Museum offers unprecedented advantages for such develop-
ment. (Applause.)
I have once again to congratulate our premier Natural History Society
on this successful culmination of their scheme. It augurs well for the future
success of your undertaking to hear, as I have, that your collections are
already too large to be displayed to full advantage in the space at your dis-
posal. But this is a healthy sign ; it is one of those instances where it will be
found better to suffer from surfeit than to languish from starvation, (Hear,
hear.) I am requested also to point out that in spite of the large quantity of