NA TURE 



553 



THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1! 



SO UTH KENSING TON SCIENCE TEA CHING. 



WE are glad to notice that the attention of the 

 House of Commons has at last been called to the 

 deplorable condition of the accommodation allotted to the 

 teaching of science at South Kensington. Our readers 

 are aware that this subject is by no means a new one, as 

 attention has frequently been called, not only in our 

 columns, but in those of the leading daily political 

 journals, to what Sir Henry Roscoe, not too strongly, 

 termed "the disgraceful state of things." We believe, 

 however, that Friday evening was the first occasion upon 

 which the subject has been brought before the House of 

 Commons. 



When the House went into Committee on the Civil 

 Service Estimates, the vote being for ;(^990o to com- 

 plete the Science and Art Department buildings. Sir 

 Henry Roscoe pointed out, in the first place, that 

 the accommodation for the teaching of physics in 

 this our only Government College for the training 

 of science teachers, would in Germany be thought a 

 disgrace in a third-rate town. The site of the make- 

 shift laboratory, which, owing to the increase in 

 the number of the students in this department, was 

 arranged in a temporary building belonging to the French 

 annexe, is now required for the Imperial Institute ; and 

 no substitute has yet been found, nor any suggestion 

 offered, beyond that made by Mr. Plunket, that two of 

 the official residences should be devoted to this purpose 

 — a scheme which, we are not surprised to learn, did not 

 meet with the approbation of those who know what is 

 wanted, viz. the authorities of the Department. Mr. 

 Mundella, as a former Vice-President, strongly indorsed the 

 statement respecting the absolute necessity of steps being 

 taken to place the Royal Normal School inadecentposition, 

 as far at least as its physical department is concerned. He 

 pointed out the undesirability, to say the least, of remov- 

 ing the residences of the officials of the Museum from the 

 ground, not so much on account of the immediate aid 

 which the resident departmental heads would give in case 

 of fire (though this we consider is important), as because 

 their presence would insure the removal and proper care 

 of the most valuable of the exhibits should such an 

 accident happen. But, apart from these considerations, the 

 idea of the Treasury suggesting that the only Government 

 Science School in England should resort to such means for 

 accommodating perhaps the most important of the ex- 

 perimental sciences is one which could only occur to 

 the English official mind. After all, as Sir George 

 Campbell said, " we are not a nation of paupers," and 

 we may well demand decent accommodation for our 

 National Science School. 



The debate was not confined to this relatively small though 

 not unimportant point. Sir H. Roscoe proceeded to ex- 

 plain that this opened the door to a much wider question, 

 viz. that of the permanent housing and protection of the 

 collection of scientific instruments and apparatus, of which 

 he remarked that few persons were aware that we are 

 possessed of one of the finest collections in Europe, con- 

 VoL XXXVII. — No. 963. 



taining not only a large number of the most delicate 

 instruments used in physical research, but also apparatus 

 of unique historic value. Such a collection as ours, if it 

 existed in France or in Germany, would be appropriately 

 housed in buildings worthy of its interest and importance ; 

 witness the industrial and scientific museums of Berlin 

 and Vienna, or the still more palatial accommodation 

 existing for similar collections in Paris. But in our 

 metropolis these collections are housed in a temporary 

 shed used by the various International Exhibitions, for 

 which miserable accommodation the Government are 

 actually paying a yearly rent of ;^20oo. Reference 

 was made during the debate to the existence of the 

 inter-departmental Report on this subject moved for by 

 Sir Henry Roscoe in June 1886. From this important 

 document it is clear that the proposal to consolidate 

 certain Government scientific institutions, to build a 

 series of galleries on the land west of Exhibition Road, 

 for the purpose of accommodating not only the science 

 collections, but also the National Portrait Galleryand some 

 other collections, met with the approval of all the members 

 of the Committee, consisting of such men as Lord 

 Lingen and Sir F. Bramwell, with the exception of Mr. 

 Milford, at that time the Permanent Secretary of the 

 Office of Works, whose opinion was apparently adverse to 

 the possession of any national science collections at all 

 As might be expected, no steps have, since the publica- 

 tion of this Report, been taken, beyond the removal of 

 the National Portrait Gallery to Bethnal Green. Surely 

 it is time that a state of things which would not be 

 permitted to exist in any decently-sized town on the Con- 

 tinent should be amended. The buildings of the Imperial 

 Institute are now raising their head on the site of the 

 late International Exhibitions, and a road is being driven 

 through from Queen's Gate on the west to Exhibition 

 Road on the east. Plots of land, one directly south 

 of the Imperial Institute buildings, and one north of the 

 Natural History Museum, are now available, and can be 

 purchased from the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition- 

 by the Government for a comparatively small sum. If this 

 is not soon done, the Commissioners intend to sell their 

 land to private individuals, to build a rowof dwelling-houses 

 fronting the road and looking on to the Imperial Institute. 

 Will such a course of things be permitted ? Is it possible 

 that the Government, after the report from the ablest men 

 of science and statesmen of the time, should allow this 

 opportunity to pass ? We must not ; and we have good 

 hopes that the promise of the First Lord of the Treasury, 

 that this question will receive the attention of the 

 Government, will not turn out to be an empty form^ 

 and that a statement will be made by the Govern- 

 ment on this matter without unreasonable delay. 



The debate was enlivened by a passage of arms 

 between Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Mundella. 

 The former, in his character of an economic reformer, 

 repudiating what he called the excessive expenditure on 

 buildings, told the House that it had not the remotest 

 idea of the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent by the 

 country in the payment of Professors' salaries, and othe r 

 forms of encouraging science and art. It is a pity, 

 for the sake of the " Professors," that the return for 

 which Lord Randolph asked is confined to expenditure 

 on bricks and mortar, otherwise he might have learnt how 



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