Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Anti-Scientism, Education, Natural History, Observation, Museums, Collecting, Comparative Anatomy

    Decries the tendency of the 'anti-parochial mind' which considers that men must 'exhaust a science before breakfast; another science before dinner', and be an authority on a huge range of subjects including 'the distribution of races, [and] the wave theory in shipbuilding' (114). Instead praises books such as Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selbourne, which are produced by 'the labour of earnest, patient men, who despise not the humblest pebble by the roadside' (115). The tendencies of the 'universal mind' are seen most clearly in the organisation of modern museums, which boast 'a motley collection' of disparate 'anatomical wonder[s]' such as 'the tooth of a whale or an elephant, and the skeleton of a crocodile', but do nothing to represent the real experiences of local people (117).

Reprinted:

Hollingshead 1900