NA TURE 



521 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1876 



OUR NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS 



THOSE who pass along Cromwell Road, South Ken- 

 sington, will not fail to observe on the site of the 

 former International Exhibition, a stately building rising 

 from the ground under the superintending genius of Mr. 

 Waterhouse. The contractors have labelled it " The 

 Museum of Natural History," but when the building is 

 completed (which will be the case in November, 1877, 

 according to the Office of Works) it may " surprise " our 

 readers to be told that there will be no *' Natural History " 

 to put into it. The Natural History Collections in the 

 British Museum — which are commonly supposed to be 

 national property — belong not to the people of England 

 nor to the " Government," but to fifty " Trustees " who 

 are obliged by statute to keep them in Great Russell 

 Street, and nowhere else. In order to enable these col- 

 lections to be removed to South Kensington when the 

 new building is ready to receive them, it will be necessary 

 to pass an Act of Parliament discharging the Trustees 

 from their present statutory duties and enacting others 

 applicable to the new site. Now the Royal Commis- 

 sioners on Science, who have recently terminated their 

 labours, have devoted a good deal of time and attention 

 to this branch of their subject. They have come to the 

 conclusion that the removal of the Natural History Col- 

 lections to another building will be a good opportunity 

 for effecting a radical change in their administration, 

 which, as it is now conducted, is by no means satisfactory 

 either to men of science or to the public. It must be 

 recollected that the British Museum was originally in- 

 stituted as a great public library, to which the collections 

 of art and science were considered merely as appen- 

 dages. The director of the whole institution is still 

 called the " Principal Librarian," and even up to a recent 

 period the whole of the staff, even in the scientific depart- 

 ments, was classified under the fiction that they were 

 " assistants " in the Library. The consequence of this 

 leading idea is that everything in the British Museum, 

 even up to the present time, is sacrificed to the extension 

 and glorification of a single department. The Natural 

 History Collections have, it is true, a nominal head, 

 and a very eminent person he is, but Prof. Owen has 

 nothing to do with the government of the institution, 

 and has not even access to the trustees when they 

 meet in solemn conclave. All he can do, when any- 

 thing is wanted or something goes wrong in one of 

 the Natural History Departments, is to approach the 

 trustees through the principal librarian, an excellent 

 individual, no doubt, but a gentleman entirely unac- 

 quainted with natural science and its requirements. It 

 will be easily imagined, therefore, that under this system 

 everything is sacrificed to the Library. The head- execu- 

 tive officer, naturally enough, thinks that his own branch 

 of the business is of by far the greatest importance, and 

 that everything else should knock under to it. As an 

 illustration of this fact we have only to turn to the 

 Civil Service Estimates for the current year. It will 

 be found that 10,000/. is to be spent upon the pur- 

 chase of printed books for the British Museum although 

 Vol. xiy.— N», 363 



copies of all those published in the United Kingdom 

 are obtained gratis, whereas the miserable pittance of 

 1,200/. is allowed for zoological specimens, 800/. for 

 fossils, and 400/. for botany ! It may be alleged by 

 the trustees that these amounts are sufficient, but the 

 contrary is notoriously the case. The general level of 

 the zoological and botanical collections in the British 

 Museum is undoubtedly far below what it ought to be. 

 The finest specimens in nearly every department of 

 natural history fall into the hands of amateurs be- 

 cause the National Collection is so badly supplied with 

 funds for purchases of this kind. No dealer would 

 think of offering a new butterfly or a new humming- 

 bird to the British Museum. With the former he would 

 go to Mr. Hewitson with the latter to Mr. Gould. Again, 

 the staff of officers in the Natural History Departments 

 is inadequate in point of numbers. Their salaries like- 

 wise are much below those of other branches of the 

 Civil Service, and quite insufficient for the duties expected 

 of them. Hence it follows that there is little temptation 

 for young men of ability and education to accept such 

 a career. These deficiencies might have been remedied 

 long ago if the trustees had been content to give up 

 their patronage. But the right of presentation to all places 

 in the British Museum is vested by statute in the three 

 principal trustees, and the Government, naturally enough, 

 declines to increase the value of appointments over which 

 they have no sort of control. 



Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at 

 that the Royal Commissioners on Science have come to 

 the conclusion that, as regards the Natural History 

 Departments shortly to be removed to South Kensington, 

 the irresponsible rule of the fifty trustees should alto- 

 gether cease, and a more simple form of government 

 come into existence on the new site. Nothing can be 

 more successful than the National Botanical establish- 

 ment at Kew, governed by a Director immediately re- 

 sponsible to one of the Ministers. The Science Com- 

 missioners, with good reason, recommend a similar form 

 of administration for the National Zoological Museum at 

 South Kensington. 



In this view, as will be seen by reference to their report, 

 the Commissioners are supported by the best men of 

 science of the day, many of whom have emphatically con- 

 demned the present system. One short clause in the Bill 

 which must be brought in to authorise the transfer of the 

 Natural History Collections to South Kensington will be 

 sufficient to discharge the trustees from all future responsi- 

 bility connected with them, and we trust there will be no 

 hesitation on the part of her Majesty's Government in 

 following the excellent advice tendered to them by the 

 Science Commissioners on this subject. 



CENTRAL AFRICA 

 Naked Truths of Naked People : an Account 0/ Expedi- 

 tions to the Lake Victoria N'yanza and the Makraka 

 Niam-Niam, West of the Bahr-el-Abiad {White Nile). 

 By Col. C. Chains Long, of the Egyptian StaflF. 

 (London : Sampson Low and Co., 1876.) 



THIS work is more than usually interesting, as the 

 author was an American officer in the Egyptian army 

 attached to the expedition of Col. Gordon, the successor 



BB 



