On the Formation of a Local Museum. 89
"The pursuit of collecting and studying Natural History
objects gives to the persons who are inclined to devote their
leisure hours to it a beneficial training for whatever their
real calling in life may be ; they acquire a sense of order and
method; they develop their powers of observation ; they are
stimulated to healthy exercise.
"Nothing encourages them in this pursuit more than a
well-named and easily accessible collection. This local col-
lection ought to be always arranged and named according to
the plan and nomenclature adopted in one of the numerous
monographs of the British fauna and flora in which this
country excels; and I consider its formation in every pro-
vincial museum to be of higher importance than a collection
of foreign objects."
After such au expression of opinion from so high an
authority as the Keeper of the Zoological Department in the
British Museum, it will be unnecessary to dwell further on
this part of the subject, although we may add briefly that
such a museum, well carried out, is especially helpful to
science in fixing a date to the fauna and flora of the district
explored, and in giving the material means of contrasting it
with the condition of both at a later period in the ever-
changing circumstances of an increasing neighbourhood.
As to the mode of forming and arranging such collections
as those contemplated, opinions will doubtless differ. The
following suggestions are offered for consideration :—
In addition to such antiquities as may be discovered in the
neighbourhood, and secured from time to time,1 the three
chief divisions or departments of a museum will correspond
with the three great kingdoms—the Mineral, the Vegetable,
and the Animal.
1 Of such antiquities as are not to be obtained for the museum,
drawings or photographs might be procured.
[In the Museum of the Essex Field Club no antiquities will be pre-
served, except such as may fairly serve to illustrate the subjects com-
prised in the department of Pre-historic Archaeology. All other antiquities
should be deposited in the museum of the Essex Archaeological Society
at Colchester.—Ed.]