ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
13
Warwick.11 As the history of this Museum has been written by
Mr. W. Cole in one of our little "Handbooks" I am relieved
of the necessity of entering into historical details.12 It is not
without interest, however, on the occasion of this—our twenty-
fifth—annual meeting, to recall the fact that the idea of forming a
museum was entertained by those who founded the Club, and
was distinctly explained by our first President, Prof. Meldola, in
his inaugural address. There is probably no member
of our Club ignorant of the way in which that idea, though
long in abeyance, was ultimately carried out through the
enlightened policy of the Corporation of West Ham, associated
with the munificence of Mr. Passmore Edwards.
On entering the Passmore Edwards Museum, anyone familiar
with the details of museum work will be struck with the
admirable way in which modern ideas have been carried out. It
is not a museum run on old lines, like many of those which are
themselves qualified to be preserved in a larger museum as
interesting, but rather melancholy, records of obsolete science.
True it is but a small museum, yet it is arranged in harmony
with the state of knowledge in the twentieth century. In a
discussion on "The Museum Question" a few years ago in
Liverpool, Prof. Herdman, one of our most distinguished
naturalists, condemned the usual methods of exhibiting natural
history objects as suggestive of the days of Linnaeus, rather than
of present day biology.13 At Stratford, however, he would find, I
venture to think, little or nothing of an antiquated character.
Mr. Cole has taken care that the biological clock should not be
put back to the time of Linnaeus. Let the visitor turn to the
left as he enters the building, and he finds himself at once in a
recess surrounded by cases which contain beautiful illustrations
of the leading Principles of Bionomics. Here are several . well-
chosen series of specimens, chiefly insects, illustrating such
subjects as protective and aggressive resemblance for conceal-
ment by colour and form ; protection by warning colours ;
mimicry, or imitation of protected animals ; and dimorphism or
differences relating to season and sex. In a yet more prominent
position in the body of the hall is a wall-case devoted to specimens,
11 Essex Naturalist, Vol. xi. (1901), p. 319.
12 The Essex Museum of Natural History. By W. Cole, F.L.S., Museum Handbook, No.
3, 1900.
13 "The Museum Question." Report of Liverpool Geological Society, Vol. ix. (1901),
p. xxvii.