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dl tho birds shot in the neigllbonrhood, or any misce]h~eo~
objects which any people of tho neighbourhood may present..
Again, when he insists that the wn11s of every school-room
should be literally papered with maps, and tho beautiful
synoptic diagrams and tables of geology, natural history,
botany, etc. . . . and copies of choice works of art to be
found in that educational paradise, the South Kensingt,on
Museum,” he just illustrates whnt onght ~ oto t bo done. Tho
papering of the walls of a school-room with all sorts of diverse
end incongruous things is calcnlated only to confuse youthful
minds nnd render them careless about the said diagrams, etc.,
when they become the subjects of n lesson. Tho walls of R
school-room nlay well bo rendered lively by a few good
pictures or other pleasing objects, but it n-ould be much better
to stow away the diagrams and other things derived from
r‘ the Educational Paradise,” until they are needed. A diagram
thus brought out freshly and singly would be far more likely
to attract the children’s interest than if it had long bccn
familiar and unheeded among a crowd of other incomprehensible
diagrams. On the same ground I would ~*atllcr
have the small Museum enclosed in an opaque cupboard than
constantly exposed to view.
Doubts map be entertained whether sufficient discrimination
has always been observed as regards the classes of things
exhibibed in recently formed or recently proposed Museums.
The so-called National Food Collection, originally formed at
South Kensington in 1859, is a case in point. It arose out of
an attempt to represent the chemical compositions of different
kinds of food, by means of small heaps of the constituent
substances. It was an experiment,, and a very proper experiment,
in ‘{visual teaching,” the idea being that the poorer
classes who know nothing of chemistry might learn by direct
observation what kinds of food yield most nutriment. But, as
a general rule, novel experiments may be expected to fail. T
fancy that the result of this experiment is to show that such
“visual teaching’’ is a mistake. On B little consideration it
will be nnderstood that in such collections the specimens hsvs
8 totally different fnnction to perform from that of true apeci-
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