June i, 191 i] 



NATURE 



455 



This is now allocated as follows : — 



Acres 



Natural History Museum and grounds, including 

 private roadway between E. and W. boundaries, 

 up to the original fence 11-64 



Imperial College, Post Office, and Meteorological 

 Office, and necessary c^en spaces ... ... ... 3-3 



^ 1494 



bay 15 acres. 



These 15 acres deducted from the 21 acres leaves 6 acres 

 for the purposes of the Science Museum, roughly only 

 2 acres more than the area actually occupied by the 

 Natural History Museum building. 



Now to use even a part of this area for a Science 

 Museum, which must eventually stretch right across the 

 strip, the Spirit Museum, not necessarily the building, but 

 its inflammable contents, must go. If there is any 

 opprobrium attached to this suggestion, I am content that 

 it should fall on my shoulders, for I was careful to point 

 out this necessity in my Memorandum of 1907 written for 

 the information of the Royal Commission, and I do not 

 know that anyone had considered the question before that 

 year. If there is any difficulty about placing the enlarged 

 Spirit Museum along Queen's Gate, it can be built in two 

 portions east and west of the entrance in Cromwell Road. 

 The future extensions of the Museum might then be 

 erected on the frontages to Queen's Gate and Exhibition 

 Road. 



It will be noticed that my figures give a little larger 

 area for the Science Museum than those shown in the 

 " Further Correspondence " (Cd. 5673) ; this arises from 

 the fact that I not only take the original line of fence, but 

 consider the already existing road to the north of the 

 Natural History Museum is sufficient to serve the purposes 

 of both Museums. If the two organisations work together, 

 not only would space be thus saved, but the amenities of 

 the gardens, until they are built over, would be made 

 common to both Museums. 



I now come to the real question at issue in which the 

 Nation is chiefly interested. Now that we have an 

 Imperial College responsible for the highest teaching, both 

 in the Physical and Biological Sciences, represented by 

 the two Museums, it is clear that the highest efficiency of 

 the teaching, if Museums are worth anything, will be 

 secured by all three institutions being as close together as 

 possible. 



There would then be a grave objection to one of the 

 courses recommended by one of your biological corre- 

 spondents, namely, that the whole of the remaining 6 acres 

 should be added to the Natural History domain, making 

 in all nearly 17 acres, of which at present they use about 

 4, while the Museum dealing with all the other branches 

 of Science should go elsewhere. 



It must not be forgotten, too, that the munificent offer 

 of the Royal Commission of ioo,oooZ., now made for the 

 third time, towards the building of the Science Museum 

 has been made on the understanding that the Museum was 

 to be built on land conveyed to the Government by them 

 in accordance with the Prince Consort's views that the 

 National Collections of all kinds should be housed on it. 



The Science Museum must then take its place by the 

 side of the Natural History Museum on the South 

 Kensington site. What is it to include? What is likely 

 to be its rate of expansion? It should include all the 

 products of men's ingenuity in science, both pure and 

 applied ; it should form the base of the discoveries and 

 the applications of the future in all scientific directions. 

 It should be to the worker in science what the British 

 Museum Library is to the student in literature — a stepping- 

 stone to higher things. 



As we have in it to deal with the works of man, and 

 over an enormous field, the new Science Museum should 

 from the start increase rapidly year by year, while the 

 Natural History Museum, dealing with the works of 

 nature, is already an old institution, and has largely com- 

 pleted its general collections. Nature's new species, repre- 

 senting animal advance, are not produced at the rate at 

 which, at this moment, man's new species, representing 

 intellectual and material advance, come into being. 



An area, therefore, for th'^ ^''ience Museum about the 



NO. 2170, VOL. 86] 



same as that thought necessary for the Natural History 

 Museum by Lord Palmerston when the land was purchased, 

 an area, indeed, not yet occupied by the buildings for 

 that Museum, should not be considered excessive for the 

 Science Museum. Moreover, it is certain, when space is 

 available, to increase more rapidly than the Natural 

 History Museum, and it will be pinched for space before 

 two generations are out unless the design for the Museum 

 building is prepared on a scheme that will take full 

 advantage of modern methods of construction with the 

 possibility of several superimposed stories of Exhibition 

 Galleries readily accessible by lifts. The frontage 

 Galleries of the adjoining Art Museum show how much 

 can be done in this way. 



This being so, is it just and decorous for representatives 

 of the biological societies to claim more space when they 

 already have more than they will require during the next 

 century, judging by the rate of expansion during the last 

 thirty years? 



At the same time, it is not to be denied that recent 

 investigations have opened out new inquiries of a most 

 important and far-reaching character. And what has 

 happened in the past may occur again in the future. 

 Ample space must be forthcoming to provide for all such 

 contingencies. 



This does not necessarily suppose great expansion of 

 exhibition space ; but it may do so, and it will assuredly 

 require the provision of adequate accommodation for 

 investigation of the collections now existing or to be 

 formed. 



With regard to extensions of the two Museums in the 

 distant future there is no difficulty. There is a block of 

 houses and mews covering roughly 6 acres to the west of 

 Queen's Gate, and opposite the 21 acres of Government 

 ground. The ultimate purchase of this would allow of 

 the two frontages being continued. It is fair to leave to 

 a future generation the question of such an extension, for 

 we cannot forecast the nature of the demands which may 

 then be made for further Museum accommodation. 



Has not the moment at last come when all those 

 interested in science in its various aspects should co- 

 operate to find the solution of a question which has been 

 debated for a generation ? There should be no conten- 

 tion between these persons — their aims are the same ; 

 they desire to afford the best facilities for the increase 

 and coordination of knowledge in all its branches. In my 

 opinion it can be shown that all this can be accomplisheif 

 at South Kensington, and a really splendid monument 

 can be provided. Is this the moment for contention as to" 

 whether this or that branch has a big enough show? 

 Ought we not rather to come together and see how best 

 to utilise what we have got? 



(Signed) Norman LocKYni?. 



NOTES. 



The Faraday lecture of the Chemical Society will be 

 delivered by Prof. T. W. Richards, of Harvard University, 

 on Wednesday, June 14, in the theatre of the Royal 

 Institution. 



There will be a display of calculating machines on 

 Tuesday, June 13, at the Royal Statistical Society's house, 

 9 Adelphi Terrace, W.C., from 4 to 5.30, during an at 

 home, for which invitations have been issued. 



The second Biennial Congress of the Far Eastern 

 Association of Tropical Medicine is to be held in Hong 

 Kong from January 20 to 37, 1912. The association is 

 international, and, as the title denotes, was formed to 

 promote the study of tropical medicine in the Far East. 



The death is annomced of Prof. Samuel Calvan, pro- 

 fessor of geology in the State University of Iowa, and 

 State geologist of Iowa. Prof. Calvan was seventy-one 

 years of age, and had been connected with the University 

 of Iowa for thirty-seven years. 



