The Development of Natural History Museums

Abstract

DR. BATHER'S comments surely support our plea for a more educative and effective arrangement of exhibits of fundamental biological importance. Under his skilled guidance several such exhibits may be discovered, but to the ordinary intelligent visitor, who may lack such guidance, they are for the most part lost in the systematic arrangements to which they are subordinated, and if discovered can make only an isolated and non-cumulative appeal. Our comments, however, were not meant as hostile criticism, for probably as much has been accomplished as the conditions allow; we endeavoured to indicate that, under present conditions, it is difficult or impossible to keep the exhibits abreast of the modern scientific and educational outlook, and that this, with other factors, pointed to the desirability of an inquiry into the position as a whole.