1897] 215 



CORRESPONDENCE 



WOMEN WITH BEARDS 



The idea of the woman of the future having a beard, noticed in Natural Science, vol. 

 xi., p. 2, as set forth by Dr A. Brandt, is scarcely new. If it is not definitely stated 

 by Darwin in his " Descent of Man," at any rate it is an obvious conclusion from what 

 he has to say concerning the appearance of distinctive masculine characters, such as 

 horns, sometimes in the male sex only, sometimes in both sexes. The appearance of the 

 beard in Homo is quite analogous to that of horns in other animals ; and just as horns 

 have apparently been acquired b} r the females of certain species by what may be called 

 "inherited transference " from the males, so will beards be obtained in time by the 

 future females of Homo. 



I thought I had actually drawn attention to this matter of beards in "Some Laws 

 of Heredity" (Proc. Cotteswold Field Club, vol. x., 1892), but I cannot find it. I 

 had it and the case of horns, etc., in my mind when I wrote therein (p. 275), "A 

 marked character of the male sex . . . being transmitted in accordance with the law 

 of earlier inheritance, ultimately appears early in life in the male. Then the character 

 tends to appear in the female sex also, though why it does so is not clear." Also the 

 transference may be from female to male, which would appear to be the case with 

 rudimentary mamma in the male of Homo. 



Let me point out another biological aspect of the case : — Facial hairiness is ex- 

 hibited more by the unmarried than by the married women. It seems that each woman 

 receives from her male parent latent beard-characters. If she have children she 

 certainly transmits such characters to them. If she has no offspring it seems that the 

 characters tend to develop in her own person. So it will be in the old woman, and not 

 in the "new woman " of the future, that the beard will be most prominent — a startling 

 retribution that the most masculine characters should appear in those who are the 

 greatest old maids. S. S. Buckman. 



Cheltenham. 



CHEMISTRY IN MUSEUMS 



In his notice of the " Report of the Proceedings of the Museums Association," 1896 

 (Natural Science, voL xi., p. 132), Dr R. H. Traquair, after referring to my paper on 

 " Chemistry in Museums " as carrying " the educational theory of museums to a pitch 

 of absurdity," goes on to say: " A collection of metals, salts, &c, is no doubt a desirable 

 feature in connection with the chemical department of a school or college, but you will 

 learn chemistry only in the laboratory, and certainly not in a museum." The phrase 

 "pitch of absurdity " is too often on the lips and on the pen points of scientific men, and 

 coming from the quarter whence it does is only a too effective means of killing sugges- 

 tions which might possibly lead to beneficial improvements. As to the sentence I have 

 quoted, one might generalise in the same heedless fashion about any of the sciences 

 which museums seek to illustrate. But it is not intended in these institutions to supply 

 a complete course of study in any branch of science, but to place such illustrations of 

 them before the public as will be helpful to those interested in the study. Hundreds of 

 cases of stuffed birds and mammals will not teach the science of zoology ; all the dried 

 plants and wood sections in the museums of Europe will not teach the science of botany, 

 nor can we learn palaeontology by looking at a fossil Glyptolaemus in a museum case. 

 These sciences also can only be "learnt in the laboratory." Would Dr Traquair on 

 that account refuse the stuffed bird or mammal, the dried plant and the fossil, a place 

 in the museum ? Do not the many mineralogical cases which litter the floors of museums 

 contain simply "a collection of metals, salts, &c." ? and these teach, if they teach any- 

 thing at all, a very little of the science of chemistry. Is Dr Traquair of opinion that a 

 good artificial crystal of common salt is of less educational value than an indifferent 

 natural crystal of Halite ? 



At the time when my paper was written I was fresh from the laboratory of a tech- 

 nical college, and thought I saw a way to help not only the laboratory student, but 

 also that larger class which is interested in science but cannot obtain access to the 

 laboratories. I did not, be it observed, advocate the formation of a new museum de- 

 partment ; I merely asked for the re-arrangement and extension of a department already 

 existing in some museums. In the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, for instance, 



