A SHORT STATEMENT OF THE
Constitution, Methods and Aims
OF THE
Essex Museum of Natural History.
By WILLIAM COLS, F.L.S., F.E.S., Curator.
IN connection with the series of brief " Handbooks " which we
hope will be welcome and instructive to visitors and young
students, it seems desirable to place on permanent record a state-
ment of the constitution, aims, and proposed methods of work of
our County Museum of Natural Science. Such a relation, albeit
very dry and business-like, will be of service in showing the
stability of the institution and the careful manner in which the
scheme was prepared, while at the same time precluding the possi-
bility of doubts and misconceptions arising in the future in
connection with the above-named important details.
THE FIRST "IDEA" OF THE MUSEUM.
The history of the inception of the Museum may be quickly
told.
In the original Rules of the Essex Field Club, agreed to at
the Foundation Meeting on January 10th, 1880, the "formation
of a Museum " were put down as one of the primary objects of
the Society. The idea was emphasised and enlarged upon in the
interesting and suggestive "Inaugural Address" of our first
President, Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., from which a few
paragraphs may be quoted, being as true and helpful now as
when uttered twenty years ago :—
" In the course of time and as our Society continues to flourish—as
it surely will if it only fulfils the promises of its early youth—we shall
hope to establish permanent collections in a Museum, and any speci-
mens which our members may like to contribute for furnishing the
nucleus of such a public collection will at any time be thankfully
received. During the first years of our existence, when our funds will
be necessarily limited, we shall, of course, be unable without external
aid to establish anything in the way of a Natural History Museum that
would be at all worthy of the County Club—the growth of such an