502 



NATURE 



[February 28, 19 18 



Oxford, told us that much of the cystitis was due 

 to our use of dirty catheters, and when Simpson 

 proclaimed that our wards were so foul as to be 

 fit only for a bonfire, we were incredulous and full 

 of wrath. But in this book is told that story of 

 the great magician under whose wand Syme per- 

 formed his last twenty thigh amputations without 

 a death ! Erysipelas, septicaemia, gangrene, 

 tetanus fled as gibbering ghosts before him. 



But for a while these marvellous results were 

 achieved only by the master and his reverent dis- 

 ciples ; they were not bestowed upon the profane, 

 or upon "slipshod surgeons." However, our 

 limits forbid any discussion of the antiseptic and 

 aseptic controversies, much ojf it a matter of 

 words, or of the enthusiastic welcome of 

 " Listerism " almost everywhere at home and 

 abroad, except in London. For these and 

 such stories we must be content to send the 

 reader to Sir Rickman Godlee's book, in 

 which every stage of the establishment of the 

 gradually perfected system is described in its 

 order, and the cardinal points developed in due 

 proportion by an author who is almost silent upon 

 the part played by himself in the new surgery. 

 Moreover, in this case, that the life should have 

 been written by a near kinsman proves to be alto- 

 gether to our advantage. C. A. 



MUSEUM MANAGEMENT. 

 The Museum : A Manual of the Housing and Care 



of Art Collections. By Margaret Talbot Jackson. 



Pp. xi + 280. (London: Longmans, Green, and 



Co., 1917.) Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 TN the absence of any comprehensive handbook 

 ^ of museum management, this book serves a 

 useful purpose. It is by no means exhaustive, and 

 is written (quite naturally) from the point of 

 view of American museums ; but it contains many 

 hints which the directors of English museums will 

 find helpful. The author does not appear to have 

 paid much attention to English museums ; only 

 ten are mentioned in her list of places visited (the 

 FitzwilUam and all provincial museums except 

 Liverpool are omitted), as compared with forty- 

 one German and seventy-nine Italian; and, apart 

 from references to the print-mounts of the British 

 Museum and a lighting device at the Ashmolean, 

 practically no use is made of their experience. 

 This, however, is no disadvantage from the point 

 of view of museum officials in this, country, but 

 rather the contrary. We know our own practice, 

 and what is helpful is to hear the experience of 

 others, even though it may need adaptation before 

 it is applied here. 



Miss Jackson deals almost wholly with what 

 may be called the body of a museum, not its soul. 

 Only seven pages are devoted to the chapter on 

 the fot-mation of collections ; but she has much to 

 say, and says it sensibly, on the situation and 

 architectural plan of a museum, on its walls, floors, 

 and decorations, on the treatment and conservation 

 of various fabrics and materials, and on questions 

 of internal organisation and administration. On 

 NO. 2522, VOL. 100] 



some points within this compass more might use- 

 fully be said; for example, on the relative advan- 

 tages of small and large rooms. Small rooms are 

 restful for the careful student who wishes to ex- 

 amine a few things and to examine them minutely ; 

 but they are wearisome to the general visitor, and 

 are less easily warded. The true solution appears 

 to be to have fair-sized galleries for the ordinary 

 visitor, in which carefully selected objects are set 

 out in the most instructive manner; and small 

 rooms for the study series, and for a few special 

 treasures, such as a Madonna di San Sisto or a 

 Venus de Milo, which deserve the honour of soh- 

 tary worship. There are few museums which are 

 planned in this way, or which can spare the neces- 

 sary space to set out objects with sufficiently wide 

 intervals; but the ideal should be before the 

 designers of new buildings. 



A few other points may Be noted. A word of 

 caution is needed against the cross-lights and re- 

 flections which come from low windows on either 

 side of a gallery and glass cases at right-angles 

 to them. If peripatetic lectures are given in the 

 galleries, some floor covering (such as cork lino- 

 leum) will save the lecturer's voice and the 

 listeners' tempers. Variations of level between 

 galleries, necessitating a step or two up or down, 

 are a great obstacle to the transport of objects on 

 trollies or barrows. More might have been said 

 about designs of show-cases ; the contents should 

 not looked naked and unframed, but the case 

 should provide a frame for the contents, 

 without overpowering them by too much 

 heaviness. If the museum is to be used at 

 night, much thought is needed for the light- 

 ing, whether by ceiling lights or lights within 

 the cases. But the omission which seems 

 most serious is a fuller discussion of the labels 

 and guide-books on which the main value of the 

 museum as an educational agency depends. In 

 America perhaps more reliance is placed upon lec- 

 tures. In this country the lecturer is making pro- 

 gress as a museum institution, but he by no means 

 replaces the descriptive label or the cheap, well- 

 illustrated guide-book. 



These are the few suggestions which space 

 allows towards the improvement of a book for 

 which museum curators should be grateful 



F. G. Kenyon. 



PLANT-ANATOMY IN RELATION TO 

 EVOLUTION. 

 The Anatomy of Woody Plants. By E. C. Jeffrey. 

 Pp. x + 478. (Chicago, 111.; The University of 

 Chicago Press ; London : Cambridge University 

 Press, 1917.) Price 4 dollars net. 

 TDOTANISTS for several years past have felt 

 -L' the need of a comprehensive text-book on 

 the anatomy of plants worthy to take the place 

 of de Bary's classic book published in 1877. As 

 Prof. Jeffrey says: "In de Bary's text-book both 

 palseobotany and development are deliberately 

 eschewed." The omission of any account of the 

 anatomy of extinct plants would in these days 



