NA TURE 



409 



THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1890. 



THE SCIENCE COLLECTIONS A T SOUTH 

 KENSINGTON. 



IT is satisfactory to learn that the Government has 

 taken the first step towards carrying out the recom- 

 mendations of the recent Commission on the South 

 Kensington Museum. The Report of the Commissioners 

 was to the effect that the Science Museums contained 

 valuable apparatus which ought to be exhibited ; that the 

 buildings in which it is displayed are inadequate; and 

 that the area of the exhibition space ought immediately 

 to be increased by 50 per cent. Between the Natural 

 History Museum in Cromwell Road and the Imperial 

 Institute Road lies the strip of ground on which the new 

 buildings must be erected. It belonged to the Commis- 

 sioners of the 1 85 1 Exhibition, and they were willing to 

 sell at a price somewhat less than the valuation of the 

 Office of Works, or at ten shillings for every pound of 

 their own estimate. 



The question to be decided was, whether the country 

 could afford ^100,000 to purchase the land necessary to 

 carry out the Report of one of the strongest Commissions 

 which has ever investigated such a subject, or whether 

 the great group of Museums for which South Kensington 

 is famous was to be cut into two by rows of mansions. 



The Government, which certainly did not err through 

 undue haste, felt that a case had been made out, that 

 further delay was useless, that the land ought to be 

 secured before time and labour were spent in discussing 

 the details of the buildings to be erected upon it, and 

 therefore they brought in a supplementary estimate for 

 the sum required. 



Then followed a debate of the kind by which the 

 prestige of ordinary members of the House of Commons 

 has been reduced to its present level. One member 

 "affirmed that there were empty rooms in South Kens- 

 ington Museum which might well be used for the 

 display of exhibits," though a body of Commissioners 

 appointed to investigate the state of the collections had 

 reported in a directly opposite sense. Another "could 

 not understand why all these educational collections 

 should be established close to one another at South 

 Kensington." In other words, he could not see that if 

 there is to be at South Kensington a great training school 

 for teachers of science and art, it is desirable that the 

 students should have ready access to the national science 

 and art collections, and that the collections themselves 

 should benefit from the advice of the Professors who are 

 familiar with them. These objections were not, however, 

 raised by men who knew the facts. Approval was ex- 

 pressed from both sides of the House by those who have 

 the interests of education at heart. Sir Lyon Playfair, 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, Mr. Mundella, and Mr. Chamberlain, 

 all spoke in favour of the vote, and Mr. Mundella put 

 clearly what those who are acquainted with the Museum 

 know to be the truth, when he said " this question had been 

 pressing for the last ten years, because for the whole of 

 that period the most valuable national science collections, 

 such as no other country in the world possessed, had 

 been housed in the most disgraceful manner." 

 Vol. xli.— No. 1062. 



The vote was finally carried by 144 to 67, and it is to 

 be hoped, now that the Government have entered upon 

 the path of progress, they will pursue it with determina- 

 tion. 



No one would urge precipitancy. Due care ought to 

 be taken that money's value is obtained for money spent ; 

 but as the question of principle has been decided after 

 ten years' debate, we have a right to demand that progress 

 shall not be delayed by mere blind obstruction to every 

 proposal which involves outlay, but that those in whose 

 hands the fate of the science collections rests shall make 

 up their minds as to what ought to be done, and shall 

 forthwith do it. 



THREE RECENT POPULAR WORKS UPON 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Glimpses 0/ Animal Life. By W. Jones, F.S.A. (London : 



Elliot Stock, 1889.) 

 Toilers in the Sea. By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D. 



(London: S.P.C.K., 1889.) 

 Les Industries des Animaux. Par F. Houssay. (Paris : 



J. B. Baillidreet Fils, 1890.) 



MR. JONES'S book is a charming little volume of 

 229 pages, with one illustration forming a frontis- 

 piece. There are, in all, seven chapters ; dealing, in 

 succession, with " Playfulness of Animals," " Animal 

 Training," "Musical Fishes" (title ill chosen), "Nest- 

 Building and Walking Fishes," " Luminous Animals," 

 "Birds' Nests in Curious Places," and "The Mole." 

 The author has been at immense pains to sift the 

 voluminous literature of his subject (a task which he 

 admits has involved a " somewhat unprofitable course of 

 romance reading"). We find, as might be expected, 

 citations of the old old stories of our youth ; the climbing 

 perch, Cowper's hares, and other time-honoured (if perhaps 

 too highly coloured) narratives appear ; the luminous 

 centipede is not overlooked ; and authorities are ap- 

 pealed to, from Aristotle and the ancient classical writers 

 of the past, down to Lubbock and Romanes (" the Rev. 

 Dr. Romanes" \sic\ p. 25) of to-day. The work is essen- 

 tially a compilation ; it consists mainly of a collection of 

 lengthy extracts, and the author has left himself little 

 room for originality. There results from this an occa- 

 sional heaviness of style, which is especially noteworthy 

 in the earlier portions of the volume. Paragraphs 

 too frequently lead off with " Broderip mentions," 

 " Evelyn records," " Humboldt saw," and the like ; 

 and not even stories of the gambols between a rhinoceros 

 and an elephant, or of those of a 60-foot whale, serve to 

 relieve the monotony. It is doubtful whether the author 

 has not occasionally erred in the placing of his anecdotes. 

 To take a leading instance ; on p. 32 there is recorded 

 the story of a parrot, " which, when a person said to it, 

 ' Laugh, Poll ; laugh ! ' laughed accordingly, and the 

 instant after screamed out, ' What a fool to make me 

 laugh ! ' " This narrative cannot be said to betray any 

 sense of playfulness on the part of the bird, as would be 

 inferred from its position in the text ; it surely should 

 have found a place under "Animal Training." The 

 most serious defect in the book is the absence of an 

 inde.x. The author has brought together a very re- 

 markable series of anecdotes ; and if he would give us an 



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