Y Cymmrodor Ed by R Jones Author:Robert Jones General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1877 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FORMATION OF A CENTRAL MUSEUM IN WALES. By F. W. RUDLER, F. G. S., Professor of Natural Science in the University College of Wales. [Read before the Cymmrodorion.] When I had the honour of being invited to read a paper before the Cymmrodorion Society, I cast about me for some subject which should not only fall in with my own line of pursuits by being scientific, but should also bear in some way upon the welfare of Wales, and thus be brought fairly within the sympathies of this Society. The subject which I have been led to select fulfils both these conditions. Having for many years been officially connected with a large museum in London, I have naturally taken much interest in the formation and arrangement of collections, and have seized every opportunity of studying natural history museums -- metropolitan, provincial, and continental. In this way I have been led to carefully note the characteristics of a large number of public collections, and to compare what appear to me to be their respective merits and demerits. On coming to Wales, I was of course anxious to learn something of the local museums. " When a naturalist goes from one country to another", said the late Professor Edward Forbes, " his first inquiry is for local collections. He is anxious to see authentic and full cabinets of the productions of the region he is visiting." Such collections, however, not only exhibit the natural productions of the province in which they are situated, but they may be taken as standards by which to gauge the scientific spirit of the neighbourhood. Wal...« less