NA TURE 



513 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1878 



OUR NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS 



THE question of the government of our Natural 

 History Collections, to -which we have more than 

 once called our readers' attention, has been taken up, we 

 are glad to say, by the British Association. It Avas 

 moved in the Committee of the Biological Section by 

 Dr. Allen Thomson at the Dublin meeting, and carried 

 unanimously, that the attention of the Council of the 

 Association should be called to the fact that in the Act 

 lately passed to enable the Trustees to move the natural 

 historj' collections to South Kensington, the recommen- 

 dations made by the Royal Commission on Science as to 

 their future government have been wholly ignored, and 

 that the Council should be requested to take such steps 

 in the matter as they might deem expedient. This reso- 

 lution having likewise successfully passed the ordeal of 

 the Committee of Recommendations, and having been 

 adopted by the General Committee of the Association, 

 will come in due course before the Council, who will, no 

 doubt, take decided action upon the question. The 

 Royal Commission on Science having been appointed 

 mainly at the instigation of the British Association it is 

 not likely that the Council will suffer some of its most 

 important recommendations to be thrown overboard 

 without remonstrance. Meanwhile we may be allowed 

 to offer a few more observations upon this subject, which, 

 we need hardly say, is of the utmost importance as 

 regards the future progress of biological studies in this 

 country. 



The great object to be aimed at is the complete separa- 

 tion of the new museum of natural history, both as to 

 control and as to finances, from the Secretariat of the 

 Trustees in Bloomsbury. If this point can be assured it 

 does not so much matter whether the nominal governor- 

 ship is vested in the Trustees or in a Minister of State. 

 We may well believe that the main object of the Royal 

 Commission on Science in recommending the latter 

 course was to make sure of a divorce of the new institu- 

 tion from the Secretariat in Bloomsbury, under whose 

 blighting rule the natural history collections have so 

 long languished. It must be recollected that the so- 

 called "Superintendent" of the Natural History Depart- 

 ments in the British Museum has hitherto held merely a 

 titular office, so far as authority goes. He can neither 

 spend a sixpence nor deviate in the slightest degree from 

 existing practice without reference to the " Principal 

 Librarian," who is the sole executive officer of the 

 Trustees, and through whom all communications from 

 the different departments have to pass. What is now 

 necessary in the interests of natural history is that the 

 Trustees should (as a minimum) be required to appoint a 

 different executive officer for the new museum of South 

 Kensington, and to keep its finances altogether separate 

 from those of the British Museum. If this change can 

 be effected there will be no longer any temptation to 

 starve the natural history in order to pamper the library 

 as is the natural instinct of the "principal librarian," who 

 is always selected from one of the library officials, and is 

 utterly ignorant of the requirements of natural history 

 over which he reigns supreme. 

 Vot. XVIIT. — No. 463 



Not only should an independent director be appointed 

 for the new museum at South Kensington, but he should 

 be appointed at once. It may at first sight appear rather 

 extravagant to assign a highly-paid director to a 

 museum before there is anything or any person in it to 

 direct, but in the end this will turn out to be by far the 

 most economical plan. If the appointment of a director 

 be deferred until the fittings of the new building have 

 been finished, and the time has arrived to move the 

 collections, it will be found that there will be all sorts 

 of alterations required which will cost large sums. If 

 the director be appointed at once there will be one 

 person responsible to see that the fittings are such as will 

 be suitable for the arrangements of the new institution, 

 and the architect will have one definite person to 

 consult upon the almost endless details which are neces- 

 sarily incident upon the conservation and exhibition of 

 such a varied mass of material as composes the National 

 Museum of Natural History. We do not doubt, there- 

 fore, that many thousands of pounds would be saved by 

 the immediate appointment of a responsible director. 

 Who that director should be is perhaps a more difficult 

 question. A few years ago the recommendation of the 

 Royal Commission on Science that the present super- 

 intendent of the Natural History Departments of the 

 British Museum should become the first director of the 

 New Museum of Natural History, would have been the ob- 

 vious course to pursue. But time runs apace, and it may- 

 be doubted whether the present superintendent would 

 now care to undergo the fatigues and anxieties involved 

 in the arduous task involved in the transfer and re-ar- 

 rangement of the natural history collections in their new 

 site. But there is another distinguished naturalist less 

 advanced in years and already domiciled in South Ken- 

 sington, whose appointment to such a post — if he could 

 be persuaded to undertake it — would command universal 

 assent. We need not mention his name — it is in every 

 one's mouth. 



One other point in connection with the new museum 

 requires immediate attention. The sapient officials at the 

 British Museum who planned the removal of the natural 

 history collections never appear to have realised the idea 

 that nowadays a library is a necessary appendage to a 

 museum. We are told, indeed, that there has been no 

 space even reserved for a library in the new building at 

 South Kensington. But, as every naturalist knows, the 

 collections would be simply useless in their new site with- 

 out a scientific library. To execute any ^scientific work 

 without books would, in these days, be more impossible 

 than the famous, if now somewhat antiquated, task of 

 making bricks without straw. But how is a library to be 

 provided ? It is not possible to go into the market and 

 buy such an article off-hand. Many, even of the more 

 modern works on natural history, are out of print, and 

 can only be picked up from second-hand booksellers at 

 long intervals. If, when the trustees determined on the 

 removal of the natural history collections ten years ago, 

 they had set apart 1,000/. a year out of the 10,000/. which 

 they devote to the purchase of books, to form a special 

 library for the Natural History Departments, the required 

 library would have been now ready. But nothing of the 

 sort was thought of, and as books on natural history 

 are growing scarcer erery year in consequence of the 



