NATURAL SCIENCE: 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 6. Vol. I. AUGUST. 1892. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



The Imperial Institute. 



'T^HE recent announcement of the issue of a detailed prospectus of 

 -'■ the aims and methods of the Imperial Institute, was welcomed 

 by many who hoped that this would at last lift the veil from the great 

 South Kensington " Hall of Mysteries." We fear, however, that 

 most of those who had hoped to gain some clear ideas upon this 

 subject are doomed to disappointment. The prospectus is a pamphlet 

 of 64 pages, but by far the greater part of this is devoted to lists of 

 the illustrious ones who serve as governors and on committees, to 

 preliminary correspondence which we read years ago, to glowing 

 descriptions of the scenes of " spectacular magnificence " at the 

 " gorgeous pageant " when the foundation stone was laid, and to 

 elaborate details regarding the architecture of the building. Only a 

 modest 7 pages are devoted to the section on the " objects and 

 purposes," and the statements here are written in a style that com- 

 bines the foggy precision of a limited liability company memo- 

 randum with the profusion of promises of an election address. 

 Among other benevolent functions, the Institute intends to undertake 

 " the collection and dissemination of such information relating to 

 trades and industries, to emigration, and to the other purposes of the 

 charter as may be of use to the subjects of the Empire." The point 

 in the programme on which stress is first laid is that of the forma- 

 tion of a collection of the raw products ; by this, in association with 

 libraries and conferences, it is hoped that the Institute will become 

 " a central source of information upon all matters relating to the 

 natural and industrial resources, the trades and handicrafts, and the 

 commerce of every part of the Empire." Branch museums and 



2D 



