NATURE 



[May 2, 1889 



growth, and the appearance of the foliage and bark when 

 attacked. The best known means of destroying the 

 insects are also indicated. 



72. Collection illustrating Fish Culture.' — This collec- 

 tion illustrates the artificial breeding of fish, the protec- 

 tion of rivers, methods of capture of fish, &c. All or 

 nearly all the collection belongs to Mr. Buckland 

 (Inspector of Salmon Fisheries). It is on loan to the 

 Museum. 



73. The Educational Collectiofis. — These collections 

 comprise : (i) a library of books bearing on education in 

 which education in science is largely represented ; and 

 (2) a collection of school furniture and fittings, philo- 

 sophical instruments, apparatus for scientific and other 

 instruction, specimens and diagrams of natural history, 

 including mineralogy and geology, and other educational 

 appliances, such as drawing materials, &c. 



74. The origin of the library and collections is due to 

 an Educational Exhibition formed by the Society of 

 Arts, and held in St. Martin's Hall in the summer of 

 1854. When this Exhibition closed, many of the con- 

 tents, English and foreign, were placed by the exhibitors 

 at the disposal of the Society, and a strong desire was 

 expressed that it should become a permanent institution. 

 The collection thus formed was offered to and accepted 

 by the Government. 



75. The chief manufacturers of educational appliances 

 and publishers of school books have largely contributed, 

 and numerous gifts have been received from foreign 

 Governments, especially at the close of the Exhibitions 

 of 1862 and 1871. In consequence of the great demand 

 for educational wo^ks on scientific subjects, the vote for 

 purchases has of late years been largely expended in 

 strengthening the library and collections in this direction. 



76. Special collections of apparatus for teaching the 

 various branches of science have lately been formed. 

 Duplicate sets of these are circulated in the country. 



77. The total number of books and pamphlets in the 

 library exceeds 30,000. 



78. A reading-room, ill-adapted and much too small 

 for the purpose, as it has been stated in evidence, is at- 

 tached to the library. It is open during the same hours 

 as the Museum, and is chiefly frequented by students, 

 teachers, clergymen, school-managers, and others who 

 wish to consult special books, or to become acquainted 

 with the best educational works on the various subjects. 



79. The Patent Mtcseum. — In connection with the 

 South Kensington Museum, but under the control of the 

 Commissioners of Patents, there is also a Patent Museum, 

 consisting of a collection of patented and other inven- 

 tions, ill-accommodated in a building which is much too 

 small for the proper display of the objects. The col- 

 lection belongs partly to the Commissioners of Patents, 

 partly to the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 3851, 

 and partly to private persons : it contains many most in- 

 teresting specimens, especially a series illustrating the 

 history of the steam-engine from its earliest days. 



Proposed Additions to the Scientific Collections 

 OF THE South Kensington Museum. 



80. We consider it our duty to point out the striking 

 contrast afforded by the British Museum collections, 

 dealing with biology, geology, and mineralogy ; the Jer- 

 myn Street collections, dealing with geology (scientific 

 and economic), mineralogy, mining, and metallurgy ; the 

 Kew collections, dealing with botany, on the one hand ; 

 and, on the other hand, the collections in the Scientific 

 Department of the South Kensington Museum (including 

 the Patent Museum), where alone has any attempt been 

 made to collect together, in a Museum, objects illustrating 

 the experimental sciences. 



8r. While it is a matter of congratulation that the 

 British Museum contains one of the finest and largest 



collections in existence illustrative of biological science, 

 it is to be regretted that there is at present no national 

 collection of the instruments used in the investigation of 

 mechanical, chemical, or physical laws ; although such 

 collections are of great importance to persons interested 

 in the experimental sciences. 



82. We consider that the recent progress in these 

 sciences, and the daily increasing demand for knowledge 

 concerning them, make it desirable that the national col- 

 lections should be extended in this direction, so as to 

 meet a great scientific requirement which cannot be 

 provided for in any other way. 



83. The defect in our collections to which we have 

 referred is, indeed, already keenly felt by teachers of 

 science, if a teacher of any branch of experimental 

 science wishes to inspect any physical instrument not in 

 his possession, as a teacher of literature would a book, or 

 a teacher of biology would a specimen, there is no place 

 in the country where he can do it. 



84. We are assured by high authorities that, on the 

 Continent, collections of scientific apparatus, when Com- 

 bined with lectures accessible to workmen, have exerted 

 a very beneficial influence on the development of the 

 skill of artisans employed in making such instruments. 



85. Lord Salisbury, in evidence before us, has stated : — 

 " There is another point in which I think that the 



Government might give an advantage of an educational 

 kind to scientific research. It would be desirable, if it 

 were possible, to provide the means of giving scientific 

 instruction to instrument makers. My impression is that 

 their importance to the conduct of scientific research is 

 scarcely sufficiently recognized by the public, and that it 

 is, I will not say quite, but almost of equal importance, to 

 have highly educated and cultivated scientific instrument 

 makers, as to have highly educated scientific thinkers." 



86. A valuable part of the instruction to which Lord 

 SaHsbury refers would be derived from the examination 

 of collections in which the history and latest develop- 

 ments of each instrument could be studied with a view 

 to its improvement or modification in any particular 

 direction. 



87. On this point we have received interesting evidence 

 from Colonel Strange : — 



" What is your opinion as to the need of a museum of 

 scientific instruments, and apparatus, and machines, and 

 tools used in the arts.'' — I think that that is a very im- 

 portant branch of the subject indeed. I need scarcely 

 allude to the great importance that is attached to that on 

 the Continent. The name of the Conservatoire des Arts 

 et Metiers will suggest it at once, which is the very best 

 evidence indeed that I could produce. I have often 

 visited it with great interest and profit. Moreover, I 

 believe there are several others in Paris, some of more 

 recent establishment, of the same kirki ; I look upon that 

 as a most necessary part of any scientific system. No 

 scientific system can be complete without examples of the 

 apparatus that are being used in all branches of science, 

 both in England and abroad, and on that point I speak 

 from experience of the great use that such a museum 

 would be. ... If there were a great museum, such as I 

 suggest, containing all the new developments in instru- 

 ments, and in machines and tools, to which I could 

 resort, I should be able to introduce modifications with 

 far greater confidence, and it would be an enormous 

 assistance to me individually. I find very few persons 

 who have really studied what I will venture to call the 

 physiology of instruments and apparatus, and such persons 

 would derive very great advantage, I think, from being 

 able to go to an establishment where large collections of 

 apparatus of different dates and the products of different 

 minds were collected together in one view, some of which 

 would contain some desideratum of which they were in 

 search. I think, if they had such a collection to go to, 

 it would materially aid them in the choice of the apparatus 



