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Apart from the obvious advantages of having in one build-
ing our collections, library, and meeting-room, and of leading
an independent instead of a parasitical existence, the forma-
tion of a permanent museum would, I am convinced, promote
our objects in many other ways. Our "Biological Registry
Office" would become better known throughout the county,
and useful specimens which by accident might fall into the
hands of the non-scientific would naturally be sent to our
museum. Then the large number of species which would
have at first to be collected would lead our active workers to
co-operate for a common object—the formation of a typical
collection representing the natural history of the county. In
this undertaking our would-be beginners might well take a
part, and in so doing would commence to derive those educa-
tional advantages arising from the study of field zoology and
botany to which I have already referred.
It will be far more satisfactory to have a general collection
formed in all parts of the county by our own members for the
express purpose of being deposited in our cabinets than to
exhibit the "tag, rag, and bobtail" of old collections, or to
expose to public view the faded and dilapidated specimens to
be seen in many local museums, both at home and abroad,
the authorities of which should regard their tattered posses-
sions with much the same feelings as did Sir John Falstaff his
ragged regiment. In addition to collections of species illus-
trating the actual productions of our district, it would be most
especially desirable in the case of insects to have preparations
showing the life-history at every stage of transformation, and
dissected specimens illustrating the structure and anatomy.
In time we might thus come to possess a collection both of
educational and technical value that would not be unworthy
of a Field Club which already includes members of many
of the most influential families in the county, and which
might ultimately become of scientific use to specialists
outside our own ranks—"a consummation devoutly to be
wished."
The geological features of the County of Essex have been