The Development of Natural History Museums

Abstract

A T the present time there are scores of natural history museums, national, municipal, and semi private, scattered throughout the British Isles, all attempting to serve science by presenting to the people the crude material of scientific study and, less generally, the results of certain kinds of scientific research. Their condition causes uneasiness to the onlooker who realises how potent an instrument museums might be in instilling scientific knowledge and creating that staunch popular backing which is necessary to bring science to its own in the life of the nation.