NA TURE 



41 



THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1876 



THE PRESS ON THE LOAN COLLECTION 



THE opening of the Loan Collection of Scientific 

 Apparatus has been accompanied by unanimous 

 approval on the part of the London daily press, and of 

 those weekly papers that have yet noticed it. This 

 approval must be all the more gratifying to the well- 

 wishers of science, and especially to those gentlemen 

 by whose efforts the collection has been organised and 

 arranged, that it is in all cases intelligently expressed. 

 All the notices of the collection that we have seen show a 

 fair appreciation of its great value, its purpose, and its sig- 

 nificance, and we believe, without exception, they express 

 a hope that it will be followed by a permanent collection, 

 in the form of a Science Museum, On another page we 

 give some account of the successful and altogether grati- 

 fying visit of the Queen on Saturday last, as well as the 

 proceedings since, and here we think it will serve a good 

 purpose to bring together public opinion on the collection, 

 so far as that has yet been uttered through the press. 



The Times of Saturday last, in a long article on the 

 collection, speaks as follows : — 



" The Exhibition which her Majesty the Queen pri- 

 vately visits and opens to-day is one of which not only 

 England but Europe may be justly proud. Pride, how- 

 ever, is not the only sentiment we English should feel, for 

 at last, if even only for a brief space, we have, under the 

 name of a Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, a 

 Science Museum as complete as those in which we have 

 already enshrined <;ur art and literature. For at least six 

 months, therefore, we shall not only be as rich in this respect 

 as France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland, but 

 far richer, since those nations, with an enthusiasm and 

 goodwill which command our universal gratitude, have 

 spoiled their ancient treasure houses, their laboratories 

 and private collections, in order that science may be 

 worthily represented among us now that our govern- 

 ment have consented to provide a home, however tem- 

 porary, for her. 



" It is right and fitting that her Majesty should be the 

 first to see how enthusiastically the applications of her 

 government have been responded to, not only by other 

 governments — chiefly those we have named— but by 

 foreign men of science, as well as those of our own 

 country, and it may be safely stated that such a sight as 

 the Queen will see to-day when she opens the Museum is 

 without a parallel in history. The world of art and of 

 letters had advanced far long before science was con- 

 sidered to be anything more than a craze, more or less 

 harmless. The natural consequence has been that at the 

 present day governors and governed alike know much 

 more about, and take much more interest in, art and 

 literature, and collections representing them, than about 

 science. If all the art treasures of Rome, Florence, the 

 Hague, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bruges, Paris, Dresden, 

 Munich, Berlin, London, and some other cities which we 

 might mention, were to be brought together, the interest 

 taken in such a collection would be immense throughout 

 the whole world. Although the Loan Collection is the 

 exact equivalent, as regards science, of the collection 

 we have foreshadowed as regards art, it is far too early 

 for an equal amount of popular interest to be taken in it. 

 The interest, however, if more limited, will perhaps be, 

 on the whole, more intense in the case of those interested 

 at all, for our people are beginning gradually to learn 

 what science has done and what its future position must 

 be, especially in a country like England, where science is 



Vol, XIV.— No. 342 



wanted so much, if it be taught so sparingly. We believe 

 it is no secret that those who have had to do with the 

 formation of this collection have found in many cases 

 that for want of such a national repository many instru- 

 ments in the possession of private persons — instruments 

 of the highest importance now that the history of science 

 is looked after — have either been broken up or lost. This 

 remark applies even to our public departments, which, as 

 a rule, have only to do with the present, so that an instru- 

 ment, however great its value may be from a scientific 

 point of view, is regarded as lumber the moment it is 

 superseded. The recommendation of the Duke of Devon- 

 shire's Commission, therefore, that a museum should be 

 established, doing for the Physical and Mechanical Sci- 

 ences what the British Museum— to talce an instance — 

 does for the science of Natural History, is one which 

 might be carried out in the most perfect and at the same 

 time economical manner in course of time, if it were un- 

 derstood that instruments that had served their purpose, 

 whether for investigation or for use, would find an asy- 

 lum where they would be looked after. It is rumoured 

 that the Royal Society is not disinclined to transfer the 

 instruments that it possesses to the charge of the nation 

 under proper guarantees. 



" To those more especially interested in science, 

 whether as investigators, teachers, or appliers of science, 

 or makers of scientific instruments, it is equally clear that 

 the collection is of the very highest value. Indeed, the 

 greater scientific activity and the general superiority of 

 the work of the instrument-makers on the Continent, 

 taken in connection with the opportunities which Con- 

 tinental students of science and instrument-makers have 

 of handling and studying instruments will, if we are 

 not much mistaken, strike every one. The moral is 

 obvious. Nor does it end here. When we bear in mind 

 that similar collections, though naturally far less complete 

 than the present one, have existed in some cases for cen- 

 turies in some of the Continental States, in some of which 

 also science has formed an integral part of ihe curriculum 

 not only of the Universities, but of the Schools, for half a 

 century, the present backwardness of England in all that 

 relates to scientific education is not far to seek." 



The Daily News of Saturday, after speaking of the 

 arrival of the long-expected contributions from Italy and 

 of the necessary delay in the opening of the Collection, 

 goes on to say : — 



" But this delay is amply compensated by the complete- 

 ness with which the task of arrangement has been per- 

 formed, . . , It was not the intention of the Government 

 to encourage a trade in scientific instruments — that is, to 

 arrange a fair. The object sought is the promotion and 

 extension of the knowledge of scientific methods both of 

 research and instruction. The intercourse at present 

 subsisting between scientific men is not of such an inti- 

 mate kind that a new discovery — the invention or im- 

 provement of an apparatus — has a chance of becoming 

 immediately known to the circles interested in it. It 

 frequently happens that a person who makes use of a 

 scientific fact in a new manner or for a new purpose does 

 not publish his idea at all ; much more frequently his 

 communication reaches only a small circle of his country- 

 men, and only in comparatively rare cases is an opportu- 

 nity afforded to scientific men of the same branch to see 

 or examine the new invention. In addition to its historic 

 and purely scientific aspect, the present exhibition supplies 

 admirable illustrations of the present stage of develop- 

 ment of the art of constructing scientific instruments. 

 In the workshops of mechanical instrume'^t-makers, 

 manipulations requiring skill are in their application to 

 certain apparatus developed traditionally to a very re- 

 markable degree of perfection, and it is expected that 

 mechanical instrument-makers and engineers will find in 

 the present collection, by comparison with the work of 



