August 1 1, 1887J 



NATURE 



345 



may call the reverse method. Take the following example 

 given by Mr. Weber : — 



i^fczHt 



^-. 



-\ * d • 



^^r 



How is your friend to - day ? Is he quite well? 



i:*zii 



5=^-T=p|3^P^^=il 



Yes, ihank you, quite well, and how are you? 



Thank you, I am quite well. 



Now, let anyone execute this as written ; and then ask 

 the bystanders whether it represents the manner in which 

 the sentences would be expressed in talking. 1 think 

 they would say, " That is not tnlkitig ; it is singing; — it 

 is opera recitative." And so on for all the examples. Mr. 

 Weber seems to ignore the essential difference between 

 the two ; i.e. the absence, in speaking, of the requisites to 

 constitute elementary music. In the first place, in natural 

 speaking there are no musical sounds, properly so called, 

 inasmuch as it is scarcely possible for a hearer to catch 

 notes of fixed and definite pitch ; the voice tends con- 

 stantly to wander about in a vague and indefinite way ; 

 the vocal cords, under the natural prompting, have no 

 tendency to remain at a permanent degree of tension ; to 

 keep them so there must be an intentional artificial effort ; 

 and hence the occurrence, in speaking, of a monotone 

 long sustained is unusual, and has a distinct musical 

 character. 



But if we could occasionally trace, in speaking, sounds 

 of definite pitch, we should find the other requisite — 

 namely, definite relations between them — wholly wanting. 

 The idea that a person, when he speaks naturally (be he 

 musician or no musician), has our scales in his mind, and 

 makes his voice conform to them, is altogether untenable. 

 The moment this is done it ceases to be natural speaking, 

 and becomes designed musical performance. 



Here, therefore, we find a most positive and unmis- 

 takable distinction between natural speech and music. The 

 person using his voice must, for the latter purpose, do 

 two things which require predetermination and effort ; 

 and which are therefore essentially artificial and not 

 naturally prompted : he must execute tones of well-defined 

 pitch, and he must give them certain definite pitch 

 relations with each other. 



Mr. Weber has, in this matter, unintentionally 

 approached very nearly a matter much debated among 

 philosophers, namely, the Origin of Music. Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, some years ago, propounded a theory that 

 music had taken its rise from the inflections of the voice 

 in ordinary language. This has been strongly controverted ; 

 but Mr. Weber goes further, and asserts that ordinary 

 language is actually music ready made ! 



He has given, as a part of his illustrations, some 

 interesting examples of street cries. These have no 

 doubt a really musical character ; but it is odd that he 

 did not see the distinction between them and ordinary 

 talking — namely, that such cries and calls are purposely 

 sung, and not spoken in the natural way. Of course, con- 

 forming to this condition, they can be correctly written 

 down, and reasoned upon as specimens of true musical 

 melody. 



There is a useful moral to be drawn from all this; 

 namely, a regret at the discouragement which is given to 

 the study of the theory of music in a scientific point of 

 view. Grove's Dictionary declares this to be useless to 



practical musicians, and so it is as long as they confine 

 themselves to practice ; but when they meddle with theory 

 the want of it must instantly make itself knowa It is 

 no disrespect to Mr. Weber to say that his article shows 

 the loose way in which such matters are too often 

 regarded. No one who has taken the very first steps 

 in the philosophical study of the structure of music could 

 entertain the idea that the sounds naturally emitted by 

 birds, cows, or dogs,. formed by the howling of the wind, 

 or used in conversation, were entitled to be called either 

 " music " or " melody." William Pole. 



THE BRITISH MUSE UM {NA TURAL HIS TOR Y 

 BRANCH). 



AMONGST the many new and interesting features 

 connected with the British Museum (Natural His- 

 tory), Cromwell Road, has been the opening of a new 

 gallery to the public, containing the Historical and Type 

 Collections in the Department of Geology and Palaeonto- 

 logy, under the care of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., 

 who has favoured us with the following account of the 

 same. 



Taking the exhibition cases in chronological order, the 

 earliest is the " Sloane Collection." This is the most 

 ancient portion of the Geological Collection, having 

 formed a part of the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., 

 F.R.S., acquired by purchase for the nation in 1753. 



The geological specimens are stated to have consisted 

 " in what by way of distinction are called extraneous 

 fossils, comprehending petrified bodies, as trees or parts 

 of them ; herbaceous plants ; animal substances," &c., 

 and reported to be " the most extensive and most curious 

 that ever was seen of its kind." Until 1857 the fossils 

 and minerals formed one collection, so that a large part 

 of the Sloane Collection consisted probably of mineral 

 bodies and not organic, but in any case only about 100 

 specimens of invertebrate fossils can now be identified 

 with certainty as forming part of the original Sloane 

 Museum. Each specimen in the Sloane Collection 

 had originally a number attached to it, corresponding to 

 a carefully prepared Manuscript Catalogue, still preserved, 

 which contains many curious entries concerning the 

 various objects in the Museum. In the course of more 

 than 130 years, many of these numbers have been 

 detached from the objects or obliterated in cleaning. But 

 as all fossils at this early date were looked upon merely 

 as curiosities, but little attention was paid to the formation 

 or locality whence they were derived. Historically, the 

 collection has immense interest to us, marking the rapid 

 strides which the science of geology has made of late 

 years, especially as regards its more careful and systematic 

 methods of study. 



The next collection in chronological order is the 

 " Brander Collection," and is the earliest one in which 

 types of named and described species have been pre- 

 served. 



This collection was formed by Gustavus Brander, 

 F.R.S., in the earlier half of the last century, and an 

 account of the same, with eight quarto plates, was pub- 

 lished in 1766, entitled, " Fossilia Hantoniensia CoUecta, 

 et in Musaeo Britannico deposita." The descriptions of 

 the species given in the work were written by Dr. 

 Solander, one of the Officers of the British Museum. 

 They were " collected in the County of Hampshire, out 

 of the cliffs by the sea-coast between Christchurch and 

 Lymington, but more especially about the cliffs by the 

 village of Hordwell, nearly midway betwixt the two former 

 places" (op. cit. p. ni). 



Only a small number out of the original 120 figured 

 specimens are now capable of being identified, the rest 



