Human beings depend upon the natural
world. We depend upon it for every
mouthful of food we eat and for every
lung full of air we breathe. Without it
we would starve - we are part of the
natural world. If we damage the natural
world we ultimately end up damaging
ourselves. But how do we keep in touch
with the natural world if in fact we are
urbanised. Well television is one thing
and television natural history
programmes are popular precisely because
people are fascinated by the natural
world. But museums of the kind that we've
had for several centuries have not been
displaced by television at all. There is
no substitute for looking at the actual
object - no television, no photograph will
replace objects like this. Museums, zoological museums are the bedrock on
which the science of zoology depends. And
our conservation of the natural world
depends upon understanding those objects.
So a museum like this marvellous museum in
Cambridge University has functions both
academic and scholarly but also very
importantly they're places where the
public at large can come to see and
study and wonder.
This place Cambridge is Zoology of Museum is of the highest
importance to the study
of zoology and through the understanding
of the natural world by people at large.
Long may it flourish.
