312 



NATURE 



\Atig. lo, 1876 



THE MUSEUM OF NATIONAL ANTIQUITIES 



OF FRANCE 

 A LL the French national museums are located in Paris 

 •^^ with the exception of the Museum of National Anti- 

 quities, which is at some distance from Paris, in a small town 

 of the banlieue. Although the Chateau de Saint Germain, 

 which has been allotted to that interesting and really 

 national collection, is a very picturesque monument, and 

 the forest round a favourite pleasure-ground for Parisian 

 families, the site allotted to the museum about ten years 

 ago was not selected with the view of giving an additional 

 attraction to the place. But the very idea of collecting 

 relics of prehistoric ages in order to demonstrate that our 

 ancestors lived in the age of the so-called diluvian ani- 

 mals was opposed' by a formidable number of influential 

 people. 



Napoleon III., personally a believer in the new 

 theory, insisted upon the creation of the museum, but he 

 assented to place it at St. Germain in order not to oftend 

 directly the prejudices of a formidable number of his sup- 

 porters. 



The St. Germain chateau was elegantly built in brick- 

 work by Francis I., the king chevalier, who dedicated it 

 to his fair dame, Diane de Poitiers. It was within its 

 walls that Louis XIV. was born, and the government of 

 the Mazarin was sitting in its elegant precincts when 

 Paris was in the hands of the Fronde. Louis XIV. 

 disregarded the building where his cradle had been sur- 

 rounded by such dangers, and built Versailles with all its 

 magnificence at a small distance of six miles. So St. 

 Germain sank gradually from the dignity of a regal resi- 

 dence into the degrading condition of a prison for soldiers 

 condemned to penal servitude by the Council of War of 

 the First Military Division. The site was only famous as 

 being the favourite spot where Alexander Dumas built 

 his celebrated villa of Monte Christo, and the first place 

 connected by a railway with Paris, as early as 1837. 



The opening of the museum was the inauguration of a 

 new era for the castle of St. Germain. Reparations and 

 restorations were begun with activity, and are proceeding 

 with such zeal that in the course of two years hence they 

 will be completed. During the Franco- German war St. 

 Germain was a stronghold of the German armies be- 

 sieging Paris, but the museum remained unmolested, having 

 been taken by the Emperor William under his special 

 protection, and M. Gabriel de Mortillet, the conservateur, 

 who had remained at his post, took advantage of his 

 influence to protect the inhabitants of the city with much 

 energy. 



His superior, the then Director of the Museum, is M. 

 Alexandre Bertrand, a brother to M. Joseph Bertrand, the 

 present Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. 

 The museum is now placed under the control of the histori- 

 cal commission for constructing the Map of Gaul. This 

 learned body is publishing a magnificent series of maps 

 and engravings in order to illustrate the progress of 

 the science of the prehistoric period, as well as of the 

 Gallic, Roman, Gallo- Roman, and Merovingian. They 

 are also manufacturing in the establishment models 

 of the objects exhibited which cannot be sold for money, 

 but are sent by the Government to the several pro- 

 vincial museums, or presented to learned men in con- 

 sideration of objects given to the museum, so that they 

 may be acquired by way of exchange. There is also in 

 the establishment a special Hbrary in which have been 

 collected by M. Gabriel de Mortillet all the books re- 

 lating to prehistoric antiquities, and which is open free on 

 certam days to the public. A carefully compiled cata- 

 logue has been prepared, and is to be published. 



The establishment is in some respects connected with 

 the Prehistoric Congress, M. Gabriel de Mortillet having 

 origmated the idea at La Spezzia, and M. Alexandre 

 Bertrand or he having been delegated by the Govern- 



ment to all similar meetings which have taken place 

 since that period. M. Alexandre Bertrand was delegated 

 to Stockholm last year. 



The objects collected in the galleries are very numerous, 

 arranged in excellent order, and accompanied by inscrip- 

 tions sufficient for the perfect understanding of their his- 

 torical bearings. A catalogue has been issued, and is 

 sold at a small price by the porters. 



In the basement have been located casts from the 

 Trojan column for showing the arms and manner of the 

 Romans when practising warfare. 



In the same part of the building are to be found the 

 models of Roman arms which were tried in the Polygon 

 of the forest before the members of the Congress of 

 Geography, as mentioned in our " Notes." 



These apparatus were constructed by a French officer 

 in order to elucidate questions raised by the publication of 

 "La Vie de Ce'sar," edited by Napoleon III., who had 

 secured the collaboration of a number of eminent members 

 of the Acaddmie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. Two 

 volumes of that altogether interesting and well-written 

 book (although the theories of Caasarism cannot be said 

 to have borne the severe test of facts) have been pub- 

 lished by M. Plon, the ^editor of his Imperial Majesty. 

 The first sold immensely, as Napoleon III. was then at 

 the zenith of his power ; but the circulation of the second, 

 issued a few months before the Franco-German war broke 

 out, was very limited indeed— so limited that the editor 

 prosecuted the Emperor to recover the money spent by 

 him ; but the petition was discharged with costs. 



It is for the publication of " La Vie de Cdsar " that the 

 siege of Alesia, the ciossing of the Rhine, &c., have been 

 expeditiously and carefully executed. The building of 

 bridges over powerful streams, encampments established, 

 assaults given, cities defended, all the warlike operations 

 of the Romans, can be understood by a visit paid to the 

 Museum of St. Germain. All this would have remained 

 a mystery for thousands of visitors, as the museum is fast 

 becoming a place of resort, if Napoleon III. had not felt 

 it necessary to justify by historical arguments his theories 

 on the advantages of the government of societies by 

 men with a special destiny. 



The large hall in the second floor may be said to be 

 the most essential part of the museum. It contains the 

 famous Moulin Guignon jaw and other human fossils dis- 

 covered by Boucher de Perthes. In a glass case have been 

 exposed seriatim the celebrated bones embellished by 

 prehistoric artists with sculptures of the then hving ani- 

 mals. 



A magnificent bust of Boucher de Perthes, and another 

 of Christy, the famous English banker and amateur geolo- 

 gist, have been erected side by side in a conspicuous 

 place. It is a justice paid to their joint labours in the 

 foundation of prehistoric science. It was due to the 

 moral courage displayed when resisting the authorities, 

 of such men as Cuvier, Elie de Beaumont, Buckland, 

 and a number of other official geologists, and to the in- 

 genuity displayed in the demonstration of such important 

 facts. 



On the walls have been painted magnificent maps ex- 

 hibiting the distribution of caves and places where stone 

 or bronze implements have been discovered, and the 

 limits of the several Gallic tribes in existence when Caesar 

 iiivaded Gaul. A number of pictures alfresco are ex- 

 hibited showing the several phases of prehistoric life, prin- 

 cipally in lake-dwellings. 



No such institution is to be found in England, although 

 cave-hunting is becoming an important pursuit in the 

 country of Lubbock, Lyell, Huxley, and Dawkins. A 

 visit to St. Germain is a very usef^ul way of spending a 

 holiday, especially if the visitor has previously written a 

 note to M. Gabriel de Mortillet, who is always ready to 

 give kindly personal explanation to foreign visitors. 



W. DE FONVIELLE 



