January io, 191 8] 



NATURE 



0^7 



jj effect, " for commandeering- hotels ; we must leave 

 places for our young officers to dine ; do you ex- 

 pect us to oust another political club ? We preach 

 economy ; do let us practise it for once. We can 

 get the museum rent-free.^' Rent-free, indeed! Is 

 the cost of structural alterations, of packing, of 

 removal, and of restoration not to be paid for? 

 Does the scientific help for our food-producers, our 

 industrialists, and our fighting or wounded men 

 weigh as nothing in the balance? Are the gifts 

 which you reject devoid even of pecuniary value? 

 '^What should ye do, then? Should ye suppress 

 all this flowery crop of knowledge and new light 

 sprung up and yet springing daily in this city? 

 Should ye set an oligarchy of twenty engrossers 

 over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, 

 when we shall know nothing but what is measured 

 to us by their bushel? "^ "Milton ! " we cry with 

 Wordsworth : 



Milton ! thou should'st be living at this hour : 

 England hath need of thee. 



• The following are a few of the resolutions which 

 have been passed by important public bodies protest- 

 ing against the proposed employment of the museums 

 for purposes other than those for which they are in- 

 tended : — 



At a special meeting of the British Academy on 

 January 3 it was resolved to represent to his Majesty's 

 Government the irreparable injury that would be done 

 to the interests of learning and humane studies by any 

 serious damage to the priceless collections in the 

 British Museum, and the slur which would be cast on 

 the good name of the country by action which will be 

 taken as implying indifference to those collections and 

 to the civilisation they represent. To remove any con- 

 siderable portion of the collections, except with the 

 utmost care and the expenditure of many months of 

 skilled labour, is impossible without the certainty of 

 injury ; and to house a large combatant department in 

 the midst of the collections themselves involves a great 

 increase in the risk of accident and fire, quite apart 

 from the danger of air attack from hostile aircraft, 

 which would" obviously be much increased. The 

 Academy earnestly appeals to his Majesty's Govern- 

 ment not to sanction action which would discredit this 

 country in the eyes of the civilised world. 



The fellows of the Linnean Society of London in 

 extraordinary general meeting assembled on January 

 7 placed upon record their profound astonishment and 

 alarm at the reported intention to dismantle the British 

 Museum, including the Natural History Museum, in 

 order to use it for Government offices ; their emphatic 

 protest at a procedure which must endanger priceless 

 and irreplaceable possessions acquired at great cost and 

 infinite labour during the last two hundred years, con- 

 stituting the most splendid museum in existence, and 

 the recognised centre of systematic scientific research ; 

 their dismav at a resolution which must paralyse scien- 

 tific activities that during the past three years have 

 been devoted to work intimately connected with the 

 prosecution of the war; and at the expenditure of a 

 large sum in adapting unsuitable buildings, whilst 

 other and more suitable accommodation might be pro- 

 vided at much less cost ; and, finally, to emphasise 

 the disgrace which must accrue to the nation in the 

 eyes of the whole world by the evidence thus afforded 



1 Milton's " Areopaeifica." 



NO. 2515, VOL. 100] 



of the inability of the Government to appreciate the 

 essential value to the nation of scientific assistance, 

 such as the British Museum has rendered and is 

 capable of rendering 



The Entomological Society of London has resolved : 

 This society, founded for the advancement and 

 practical application of entomological science, know- 

 ing that this science, especially at the present moment, 

 plays a most important part in many questions, often 

 of extreme urgency, affecting the health of the nation 

 and its forces at home and abroad, its food supplies its 

 timber, and the raw material of its manufactures, 

 views with the gravest concern any action that would 

 impede work essential to the national welfare. Towards 

 the solution of these problems the collections at the 

 j museum have in the past largely contributed, and 

 ' many of them are at present under investigation.' The 

 proposed action of his Majesty's Government in refer- 

 ence to the Natural History Museum would have a 

 disastrous effect upon work which demands continued 

 reference to its enormous collections. It is obvious 

 that to be of any practical value these must alwavs be 

 readily available, and, moreover, their removal would 

 not only be a very lengthy undertaking, but could not 

 be carried out without irreparable damage. The Ento- 

 mological Society of Ix)ndon feels bound, therefore, 

 to enter the strongest possible protest against such 

 proposed action, the full consequences of which can 

 scarcely have been realised, and in the interests of the 

 Empire urges that the suggested interference with 

 these important collections should be abandoned. 



At a meeting of the council of the Minera- 

 logical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 held on January 7, it was resolved : That 

 the First Commissioner of Works and the War 

 Cabinet be most earnestly requested to reconsider the 

 proposal to utilise a portion or the whole of the Natural 

 History Museum for other than its present purpose. 

 In particular, as regards the Mineral Department, 

 the Mineralogical Society views with alarm any pro- 

 posal to render inaccessible, both to the general public 

 and students, and also to inquirers respecting economic 

 questions, the national collection of minerals, which 

 has been accumulated during the past century and a 

 half, and is now the largest and most complete in the 

 world. This collection contains, for reference and 

 comparison, examples of all minerals (and ores) that 

 have been put to economic uses, representing numerous 

 localities that have not yet been worked commercially. 

 Direct reference to those parts of the collection not 

 exhibited to the general public would supply a large 

 amount of information, not available elsewhere, even 

 in published works, respecting mineral occurrences in 

 all parts of the world. Such information has already 

 been utilised by the Advisory Council on Scientific and 

 Industrial Research, by the War Office, and by the 

 Department for the Development of Mineral Resources 

 attached to the Ministry of Munitions of War, and 

 could also be of use to the proposed Imperial Mineral 

 Resources Bureau. The proposal to render such in- 

 formation inaccessible would seriously hamper the 

 work of all Government departments concerned with 

 the development of the mineral resources of the 

 Empire. 



At a special meeting of the council of the Essex 

 Field Club, held on January 7, it was unanimouslv , 

 resolved : That the council of the Essex Field Club 

 learns with amazement that the Government contem- 

 plates occupving the British Museum, including the 

 Natural History Museum, for departmental offices, and 

 hereby expresses an indignant protest against such 

 action, which is certain to result in irreparable injury 



