1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 367 
an advertisement has to be given, it need not be in the form of an 
untruth. The student wishes, we presume, to be directed to the 
original source of the figure and not to be sent on a wild-goose- 
chase from text-book to text-book. On the latter principle the 
whole of “ Hamlet” might be attributed to writers in the daily 
press. 
We can put the point quite clearly to the gentlemen referred to 
above. How would they like to see the results of their own original 
researches placed to the credit of any author that chanced to quote 
them? Or how would they like to have the obsolete ideas of older 
authors fathered on them? At the least they would denounce such 
action as a gross injustice, and they might say that it contravened 
the most elementary notions of morality. 
PHOTOGRAPHY IN NATIONAL MUSEUMS 
WE have so often urged the advantage of having a permanent photo- 
graphic establishment connected with our museums, that we welcome 
the address recently delivered to the Royal Photographic Society by 
its President. All the more do we welcome it, seeing that the 
President is the Earl of Crawford, who, as one of the Trustees of 
the British Museum, speaks with knowledge of the need and of the 
practicability of supplying it without any additional cost to the 
nation. Berlin and Munich, he pointed out, have shown that a 
photographic department can issue the finest work, can be of in- 
calculable value to institutions in all parts of the world, and yet can 
be self-supporting. He pleaded forcibly that some such establish- 
ment should be attached to the British Museum. 
In this connection it is satisfactory to learn that at least one 
small step in the desired direction is being taken at the Natural 
History Museum. A studio for the use of photographers is being 
built, and when this is completed it will be possible for investigators 
to photograph the specimens in the collection under better conditions 
of lighting and of quiet than are now attainable. We do not, how- 
ever, learn that it is contemplated to attach a photographer to the 
establishment, or even to train an attendant as operator. The chief 
use to which the studio will be put will be the photography of speci- 
mens for the illustration of the Museum catalogues. Those who 
wish to utilise the accommodation for other scientific purposes will, 
whether they be connected with the Museum or no, still have to 
import their own apparatus and their own photographer at an ex- 
pense which weighs heavily upon most students of natural history, 
and seriously hinders the proper illustration of scientific papers. 
However, the wedge is being slowly driven in; we must be grateful, 
and we live in hope. 
