NA TURE 



309 



THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1879 



THE NEW NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 



NOTWITHSTANDING the delay caused by discus- 

 sions on the Zulu campaign and the Army Dis- 

 cipline Bill, the Civil Service Estimates must shortly 

 come before the House of Commons, and an opportunity 

 will be given for obtaining from the Government some 

 explanation of the course they propose to adopt with re- 

 gard to the administration of the New Museum of Natural 

 History. As vv'ill be seen by the memorial, of which \re 

 gave a copy some -weeks ago, the Council of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, in accordance 

 with the resolution adopted by the Association at the 

 Dublin meeting, have strongly urged the pressing import- 

 ance of this question upon the Government. Naturalists, 

 we believe, are one and all of the same mind on this sub- 

 ject, but owing to the many important political questions 

 of the day, and to the general ignorance of, or we may per- 

 haps say, indifference to, the true wants of science, find it 

 very difficult to get their wishes attended to. Their 

 general opinion upon the British Museum question may, 

 we believe, be shortly stated as follows. 



The dominant idea, as we all know, of the Founders of 

 the British Museum was the library. The collections of 

 natural history and antiquities which have been added to 

 it during the past fifty years have always been regarded as 

 entirely subordinate, and not-to-be-too-much-cncouraged 

 parts of the general scheme. The executive officer of 

 the whole institution has always been the "principal 

 librarian," trained up in the book department, and 

 having his great aim and object to make that department 

 as perfect as possible. Some years ago, in obedience to 

 pressure from without, an eminent naturalist was made 

 "superintendent" of the four sections of the museum 

 which relate to natural history, namely, zoology, botany, 

 geology, and mineralogy, but care was taken to give him 

 no real power, and his authority, we believe, has remained 

 completely nominal up to the present day. The " super- 

 intendent of the natural history departments " has never 

 been allowed to interfere in any way with the important 

 functions of the principal librarian, in whom the adminis- 

 trative power of the whole of the Museum is vested. 

 Now fifty years ago, in the infancy of natural history in 

 this country, such an arrangement as this might have 

 answered very well, but with the gigantic strides that 

 science has made of late years, it is not likely that 

 naturalists will be content to allow the great National 

 Museum of the country to continue to be governed by an 

 individual of no scientific attainments whatever, and to 

 be entirely subordinated to the predominant interests of 

 the Public Library. When the Royal Commission on 

 Science was appointed in 1872, and the question of the 

 British Museum came before it, the grievances of the natu- 

 ralists found vent, and the systematic injustice with which 

 this department of the Museum had always been treated was 

 fully exposed. After taking full evidence on this subject, 

 the Royal Commission came to the conclusion that the ob- 

 jections raised to the present system of government of 

 the natural history collections were "well founded," and 

 were " unable to discover that the system is attended by 

 any compensating advantages." The Royal Commission 

 Vol. XX.— No. 509 



recommended consequently that the opportunity should 

 be taken of the proposed removal of these collections into 

 the new building at South Kensington, to separate them 

 at the same time entirely from the control of the trustees 

 and to place them under the rule of a director, who 

 should be responsible to one of the Ministers of State. 



It might have been well supposed that such a recom- 

 mendation, coming as it did from a Royal Commission 

 composed of some of the leading scientific authorities of 

 the country, and backed by the universal opinion of 

 naturalists, would not have been ignored. But such is 

 the apathy displayed by our Government, when questions 

 merely of scientific interest are at stake, that the recom- 

 mendation appears to have been entirely overlooked. At 

 the fag end of last session the trustees of the British 

 Museum were pemiitted to pass an act enabling them to 

 move the natural history collections to South Kensington 

 without making any changes whatever in the mode of 

 their administration, and not a single member of the 

 Legislature appears to have raised his voice against this 

 summary mode of dealing with the question. 



Unless something can be done to upset the conclusion 

 thus arrived at, it is obvious that the evils so loudly com- 

 plained of during the stay of the natural history collections 

 in Bloomsbury will accompany them in their migration to 

 South Kensington. The library at Bloomsbury will con- 

 tinue to be regarded as the main business of the fifty 

 trustees, and the natural history at South Kensington will, 

 as of old, be starved in order to feed the wants of the 

 more favoured institution. Besides this, many absurd 

 laws and antiquated regulations exist in the British Mu- 

 seum which it would be highly inexpedient to introdu-ce 

 into a new institution, and which can only be got rid of 

 by a complete change of the ruling powers. 



It is said that the trustees of the British Museum, 

 having had the memorial of the British Association 

 pressed upon their attention by the Treasury, are pre- 

 pared to make certain concessions as regards the manage- 

 ment of the New Museum at South Kensington. But in 

 the face of the strong recommendations of the Royal 

 Commission we do not believe that any arrangement of 

 this character will be deemed satisfactory. 



In fact, the only hope of good government for the new 

 Museum of Natural History lies in its entire separation 

 from the unnatural foster-sister with which it has been 

 hitherto reared. Every man of science will, we think, 

 agree with the Duke of Devonshire's Commission in 

 considering that natural history has now full claims to 

 a separate maintenance, and will render thanks to the 

 Council of the British Association for their efforts to 

 impress the importance of the recommendations of that 

 Commission upon Her Majesty's Government. 



BRAIN AND MIND 

 The Relations of Brain and Mind. By Henry Caldcr- 

 wood, LL.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the 

 University of Edinburgh. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1879.) 



THE object of this work, Prof. Calderwood says in his 

 preface, " is to ascertain what theory of mental life 

 is warranted on strictly scientific evidence.' ' 



" The order followed is to consider, Jirsl, the latest 



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