682 



NATURE 



[February 17, 19 16 



Musi'uin has been .built, fitted, and furnished, and that 

 by which it is maintained in full efticiency, has, been 

 annually voted by Parliament, and generous benefac- 

 tors have i,''iven priceless collections to it on the express 

 undcrstandini^ that the museum is— by Act of Parlia- 

 ment — a permanent national jwssession daily open to 

 the public. It is, of course, understood that the Trustees 

 may close it on certain days for administrative pur- 

 poses, and in case of national disaster the Govern- 

 ment would be justified in suspending all expenditure 

 upon it. But the endeavour to save a minute fraction 

 of the annual cost of the museum by hastilv closing 

 its doors in its owner's face, must lead to public 

 resentment and want of confidence in the Trustees, 

 who alone (and not the Government) are by Act of 

 Parlianunt distinctly charged with the public duty 

 of keeping it open. As a consequence there might 

 very probably be a resistance in Parliament to the 

 passing of the annual grant by which the museum is 

 maintained, and the good work done there might be 

 curtailed or brought to an end. 



It has long been the policy of those who have duly 

 understood the position of the Natural History 

 Museum to give every facility and every assistance to 

 the public in the use and enjoyment of its contents. 

 It was the main care of Sir William Flower when 

 director to make the galleries both delightful and 

 really educative. In that respect I, in my turn, fol- 

 lowed him, and recognised as a fundamental principle 

 of administration that the public must be enabled, in 

 every possible way, to understand and to enjoy the great 

 museum for which it pays. That is no more than a 

 fair and honourable acknowledgment to the taxpayer 

 of the large sums which his Parliamentary representa- 

 tives (quite independently of the Government of the 

 day) place in the hands of the staff of the museum 

 for the purpose of scientific research and discovery 

 and the maintenance of the museum as a centre of 

 studv and expert advice. It is only by securing for it 

 the intelligent interest and appreciation of the public 

 that the Natural History Museum can be assured of 

 the continuance of its annual subsidy. That view, I 

 may sa}^ was one which was often expressed to me 

 by our late King Edward, when, as Prince of Wales, 

 he was a trustee of the museum. It seems to me 

 that to shut the public out of its museum in order 

 to spare expenditure on the wages of a few super- 

 annuated soldiers as watchmen, would be to give 

 public offence without any prospect of compensating 

 advantage, and I therefore venture to hope that the 

 proposal to do so may be reconsidered. 



An error, for which we were not responsible, 

 crept into the figures of attendance at the Colches- 

 ter Corporation Museum, to which we alluded last 

 week. The week-day figures for the last nine 

 months of 1915 were 39,933. But, even so, the 

 numbers seem to have been quite double those of 

 ordinarv vears. 



NOTES. 



We announce with deep regret the death on 

 February 15, in his eighty-fifth year, of Sir William 

 Turner, K.C.B., F.R.S., principal and vice-chancellor 

 of the University of Edinburgh. 



We see with much regret the announcement, in the 

 Times of February 11, of the death of Prof. I. P. 

 Pavlov, a foreign member of the Royal Society, late 

 professor of physiology in the Universit}' of St. Peters- I 

 burg, and director of the Imperial Institute for Experi- 

 mental Medicine. 



NO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



Sir E. Vi.\( km K\a.\s has been appointed chairman 

 of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in 

 Wales and Monmouthshire, in succession to the late 

 Sir John Rhys. 



The death is announced, in his sixtieth year, of Dr. 

 J. O. Reed, who had been connected with the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan since 1892, as successively, instructor, 

 assistant professor, and professor of physics. He was 

 the author of a text-book of " College Physics," and, 

 with the late Prof, K. E. Guthe, of a "Manual of 

 Physical Measurements." 



According to the British Medical Journal, the 

 foundation-stone of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases 

 of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine will be 

 laid on February 24 by Lord Carmichael, the Governor 

 of Bengal. We learn from our contemporary that the 

 whole of the money required for the building has now 

 been collected. 



At the meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East 

 Anglia on February 7 Mr. J. Reid Moir read a paper 

 on Palaeolithic implements found at Darmsden, Suffolk; 

 in a high-level plateau deposit. Some are choppers 

 or scrapers, while others appear to have been used as 

 borers. All have been made from Lower Eocene 

 pebbles, and appear to represent a hitherto unrecog- 

 nised type. 



Among the goods of which the import is prohibited 

 by a Proclamation to come into force on March i, 

 are : — All materials for the manufacture of paper, in- 

 cluding wood pulp, esparto grass, and Hnen and cotton 

 rags ; paper and cardboard (including strawboard, 

 pasteboard, millboard, and wood pulp board), arid 

 manufactures of paper and cardboard; and all period- 

 ical publications exceeding 16 pages in length, im- 

 ported otherwise than in single copies through the 

 post. 



The committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 

 and Industrial Research has appointed the Hon. Sir 

 C. A. Parsons, K.C.B., F.R.S., to be a member of 

 the Advisory Council in place of Prof. B. Hopkinson, 

 F.R.S., who has been forced to resign by the pressure 

 of his military duties and special work connected with 

 the war. The committee has also appointed Prof. 

 J. F. Thorpe, F.R.S., to fill the vacancy on the 

 Advisory Council caused bv the death of Prof. Raphael 

 Meldola, F,R.S. 



According to the Cape Town correspondent of tbt 

 Times (February 11), the Rand has been subject to a 

 series of earth-tremors, which have lately been in- 

 creasing in frequency and strength, A committee 

 appointed to investigate them has issued a reassuring 

 report. The shocks, it appears, are purely local, being 

 the result of mining operations, and therefore unlikciv 

 ever to be of a destructive character. They seem ; 

 resemble t^he earth-shakes which are not uncomnK 

 in the mining districts of this country, and are prob- 

 ably due to small movements along faults precipitated 

 by the withdrawal of coal or water. 



The Nieuwe Courant of February 3 announces tlv 

 death, from heart failure, of Dr. August Michaelis. 

 professor of chemistry in the University of Rostock. 



