August 29, 1889] 



NATURE 



425 



THE SCIENCE COLLECTIONS AT SOUTH 



KENSINGTON. 



'X'lIE following is the Report of the Committee appointed by 



^ the Treasury to inquire into the Science Collections at 



South Kensington : — 



1. Our original instructions are contained in the Treasury 

 \ in ite of the 19th February 1889, which will be found in the 

 Appendix (No. i). I'pcn consideration, we found that some 

 amplification of these instructions were necessary, and we 

 accordingly communicated to Government the resolution which 

 is printed in the Appendix (No. 2). In reply to this resolution 

 we received a letter from" the Treasury under date of the 23rd 

 March, Appendix (No. 3). 



2. After some preliminary deliberation, and an inspection of 

 the collections which form the subject matter of our inquiries, 

 we proceeded to take evidence from representatives of the 

 Science and Art Department and others who had been practi- 

 cally concerned in the formation and arrangement of these 

 collections ; and, during our inquiries, we have again inspected 

 the several branches of the Museum in company with professors 

 of the Normal School of Science and others specially conversant 

 with the contents of each ; we have also been furnished with 

 detailed catalogues of the collections. By these means we trust 

 that we have secured an acquaintance with the contents of the 

 science collections sufficiently exact for the purpose of our 

 present inquiry. 



3. It may be convenient that we should recapitulate the differ- 

 ent collections with which we have had to deal, noticing at the 

 same time the manner in which they are at present housed. In 

 these respects, the changes since Sir Frederick Bramwell's 

 Committee reported have been not inconsiderable. 



The collections have been classified by the Department 

 (January 1888) under two main divisions : — 



I. Instruction and Research. 



II. Industrial Applications. 



Division I. — The collection of Scientific Instruments and 

 Appliances for science teaching occupies 6325 square feet on 

 the ground floor and 15,840 square feet on the upper floor (in 

 all 22,165 square feet) of the Western Galleries.^ 



It is grouped by the Department under the following heads, 

 corresponding in the main with the arrangement of the Science 

 Directory. 



A. — Mechanics and Mathematics, 



B. — Physics. 



C. — Chemistry, Metallurgy, and Principles of Agriculture. 



D. — Biology. 



E. — Geology, Mineralogy, and Mining. 



F, — Navigation, Nautical Astronomy, and Physiography. 



The collections illustrative of Mining are, however, housed in 

 the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, in connection with 

 the Royal School of Mines. These we have not examined or 

 considered. 



Division 11. — Industrial Applications. 



[a) The collection of Machinery and Inventions (including 

 the selected specimens from the old Patent Museum, and also 

 some few illustrations of metallurgical operations) occupies 

 18,476 square feet on the ground floor of the " Southern 

 Galleries." - 



{b) The collection illustrative of Naval Architecture and 

 Machinery occupies 15,374 square feet in all on the upper and 

 ground floors of the " Southern Galleries," the machinery being 

 on the ground floor. 



{c) The Fish Culture collections and some miscellaneous 

 objects occupy 5630 square feet in a wing at the west end of 

 the " Southern Galleries." 



4. In addition to these branches of our subject we should, in 

 order to complete the list of scientific collections, mention the 

 two following, which lie beyond the terms of our reference : — 



(i.) The Educational Library of Science. This is now placed 

 in the Museum, to the east of Exhibition Road, in connection 

 v.'ith the Art and General Library. 



(ii. ) The collection-i of Food and Animal Products, formerly 

 at South Kensington. These are now housed in the Bethnal 

 Green Branch Museum. 



It may lie convenient to add that about 16,000 square feet on 

 the two floors of the eastern end o^ the Southern Galleries 



' The Western Galleries are those adjoining Queen's G.ite and north of 

 the new Imperial Institute Road. 



- The Southern Galleries are those extending from Exhibition Road to 

 Queen's Gate to the south of the new Imperial Institute Road. 



(formerly the National Portrait Gallery) aie now occupied by a 

 collection of modern industrial products, furniture, and orna- 

 ments, removed thither from Bethnal Green, which belons^s to 

 the Art division of the Museum, and has no connection with the 

 Science collections upon which it is our duty to report. Further, 

 about 9200 square feet on the ground floor of the Western 

 Galleries are used only for examination rooms. 



5. It will be observed that in our enumeration of the branches 

 of the Science Collections as at present existing, we have made 

 no reference to two branches mentioned in the Report of Sir F. 

 Bramwell's Committee : — 



{a) The Educational Collection. 



(1^) The Structural Collection. 



For these sections spaces of 7000 square feet and of l5,oco 

 rising to 25,000 square feet respectively, were demanded by the 

 Committees whose recommendations were adopted in that 

 Report. 



These sections have been suppressed for reasons given by 

 General Donnelly, the articles of which they were composed 

 having been returned to the lenders or otherwise disposed of. 

 It was probably the aspect of these collections which, upon a 

 superficial view of them, led to the severe strictures sometimes 

 passed on the contents of the Southern Galleries. 



As regards these two sections, we may here say that in our 

 opinion the necessity for the exhibition of school furniture and 

 fittings, such as are required for schools receiving grants under 

 the Elementary Edtication Acts, no longer exists ; but (under 

 proper limitation) a series of diagrams and models of the best 

 forms of construction and a collection of specimens of material, 

 specially designed for scientific and technical education, might 

 with advantage be exhibited in connection with the subject of 

 mechanics as taught in the Norman School, and with that 

 subject and with building construction as taught in science 

 classes, and with the general collection of applied science. 

 Such a collection should be strictly technical in character; 

 otherwise there would be a risk of indefinite extension in this 

 department. 



6. The order in which we have described the collections in 

 our third paragraph follows the arrangement adopted by the 

 Science and Art Department in January 1888, and agrees with that 

 suggested in paragraph 26 of Sir F, Bramwell's Report, where 

 the "instruction given in the Normal School of Science" 

 coupled with "the teaching of science generally throughout the 

 United Kingdom," precedes " the acquisition of other objects in 

 the interest of science or nf the arts." 



It is indeed evident that the collections in the Western 

 Galleries, containing instruments and appliances indispensable 

 for the teaching of science, are more closely connected with the 

 work of the Normal School and the science classes in connection 

 with the Department than the machinery, to which, however, 

 some of the professors refer by way of illustration in their 

 lectures ; and the machinery is more closely connected with the 

 Normal School and science classes than are the ship models, 

 which at present are not used at all for the school ; whilst the 

 fish collection serves no direct educational purpose at all. We 

 learn from the Treasury Letter of March 23 that the view as to 

 the object of these collections expressed in paragraph 26 of Sir 

 F. Bramwell's Report has in substance been adopted by Govern- 

 ment, with the qualification that " the teaching of science 

 generally" must be subject to "reasonable regulations." 



Prof. Huxley, who, in one capacity or another, has had a very 

 large share in the formation of these collections, maintains that 

 the connection of the collections with the Normal School of 

 Science is " accessory and accidental," the essential object of 

 them being, firstly, "to facilitate practical instruction in science, 

 particularly in the teaching in the science classes connected with 

 the Department, by enabling teachers to acquaint themselves 

 with the various apparatus, models, and specimens which are 

 indispensable to proper scientific instruction, or which have been 

 found especially useful in such instruction, and in original investi- 

 gation," and, secondly, "the preservation of apparatus and 

 models which possess historical interest as marking stages either 

 in the progress of discovery or in that of the application of 

 scientific principles to art and industry." 



Without attempting to determine the relative value of such 

 collections as regarded from different points of view, we would 

 state that in our opinion their direct educational bearing does 

 not afford an adequate test of their value and importance. 



7. We proceed to consider scriallm the several sections of the 

 collection, beginning with the "Appliances for Instruction and 



