Abstract
THERE is no doubt of the popularity of museums of natural history with the lower classes. That it is otherwise with more educated people is perhaps attributable, not so much to indifference to scientific knowledge, as to the fact that hardly any scientific knowledge is to be gained by a cursory inspection of crowded collections, arranged with reference to economy of space rather than to the existing conditions of zoological science. It must not be forgotten that the sentiment of mere wonder, which the stranger forms of animal life are so calculated to excite, was satisfied, or at least blunted, in early childhood, in the case of those of us who have had access to well-illustrated books, and to the zoological gardens of great cities.
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Museums of Natural History. Nature 2, 138–139 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002138a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002138a0