'M ARCU is, i 920] 



NATURE 



69 



Depiatnient 1 duties so dissirfrilar as the management 

 of sci^ntifiq and artistic collections, and would 

 jeopardise - its- scientific position. One great 

 advantage of that Department is that it provides 

 one strong ■ and influential organisation devoted 

 to thtj development and utilisation of science ; 

 but if it had to control all literary and classical re- 

 ^tarch its aims would be diffuse, and pure science, 

 I. 'tween the claims of the "humanistic" and indus- 

 uial sections, might fare poorly. 



To unite all our museums, artistic and antiquarian, 

 t lassical and commercial, scientific and military, under 

 one control would maintain the practice that a 

 museum is a " raree " show, and be inconsistent with 

 the modern principle that a museum is primarily a 

 laboratory of whith the general policy should be deter- 

 mined by the authorities in its own department of 

 knowledge. To place a technical or research museum 

 under the Board of Education is as anomalous as to 

 place some other museums under a research depart- 

 ment. There are museums in London- — for example, 

 that at Bethnal Green — which would be appropriately 

 inanai^ed by the Board of Education or by the Educa- 

 ion Committee of the London Country Councif as the 

 '■monst ration department of the East London schools. 

 The foundation and original endowment of the 

 I->ritish Museum by a State lottery introduced into 

 British museum policy a virus of chance, which has 

 since been a potent factor in the development of the 

 museums ; but a commission of inquiry might now 

 secure sufficient support to establish them on a firmer 

 foundation and utilise the unique opportunities of 

 London as the home of a well co-ordinated group of 

 world-representative museums. The present medley. 

 in spite of its unrivalled material, is being outclassed 

 1)\ the museums of .America. J. W. Grfx.orv. 



4 Park Quadrant, Glasgow. 



Those who have long viewed with increasing irrita- 

 tion the waste of time, labour, and money involved in 

 the present unco-ordinated condition of our national 

 museums will welcome the leading article in Nature 

 of March II, in which you have with such justice ex- 

 pounded the situation and indicated a possible solution 

 of our difficulties. It is a little dangerous for a Civil 

 Servant to express a candid opinion on the workings 

 of Government Departments, but perhaps I may be 

 allowed to go outside that taboo area and to point 

 out that the duplication of work and the competition 

 for specimens to which you have alluded affect all 

 the museums (including art galleries) of the country. 

 .Some of us, therefore, have come to the conclusion 

 that these also should be co-ordinated with the national 

 institutions and knit into a single scheme. There 

 need be no interference with the existing direction of 

 (>aeh museum, but there could be much organised help. 

 We of the geological department of the British 

 Museum do, in a small, disjointed way, try to help 

 our colleagues of other museums, and we receive 

 help from' them. But this is just enough to let us 

 imagine what could be done if such mutual aid w^re 

 placed on a tecognised footing ; if, for instance, the small 

 band of museum palaeontologists of Great Britain (and 

 Irelaiid ?) was so or^janised as to cove* the field, and 

 so employed that each specialist could help and advise 



• on his oWn subject in all museums as part of his 

 official dutres. ' .^t the first meetings of the Museums 

 Association in r%o a committee was appointed to 



^ consider" some such co-operation^ but little practical 

 result has ensued, not for lack of goodwill, but because 

 oxistin^^ cftttdUions stand in the way/ What applies 

 to palaeoTitotogv applies, to all other branches of know- 

 lodgfi. 'But- this is onlv one of the imprbvements that 

 might spring from a reform such as we have in view. 

 NO. 2629, VOL. TO5] 



Many other good results there could be, among 

 them-, perhaps, a better training for curators. Biit 

 that the results shall be good it is necessary fOr.the 

 directing board to be composed of men with museum 

 sympathies and experience. Therefore, whether the 

 Ministry be that of Education or some new Ministry 

 of Learning and Research, it should exert its financial 

 or other control over museums through a special 

 museum board. In this way those branches of 

 museum work which do not meet the public eye would 

 run less risk of being overlooked. Any large natural 

 history or other science museum is part of the arma- 

 ment employed by man in his unceasing warfare 

 against the forces of Nature. Intellectually and 

 economically that is its main purpose. .\s the Earl 

 of Crawford, in replying for the Government on the 

 debate raised by Lord Sudeley, rightly said : " It is 

 not the popular guide-books, but the technical and 

 specialised publications issued by museums which 

 really count. They are of vital importance." Visits 

 to a museum, like visits to a battleship, may be of 

 high educational value, especially under the guidance 

 of a qualified demonstrator, but — well, the inference 

 is obvious. Only one point needs emphasis. Museums, 

 no less than battleships, should be under the adminis- 

 tration of those familiar with the principles and 

 methods of the resi^ective warfares. ' - '; 



F. A. Bather. 



Wimbledon, March 13. 



The relation of the State to the national museums, 

 and of the latter to each other, discussed in NaturR 

 for March 11, is a matter calling for very careful 

 consideration at the present time. A Ministry of 

 Learning and Research, such as is there suggested', 

 would render very useful service if 'it could (i) see 

 that the governing body of each institution was corrt- 

 posed of persons duly qualified for their wbrk; 

 (2) define the scope of each institution, so as to 

 diminish the risk of competition for desirable ^jieci- 

 mens, and to provide each with a definite piece of 

 work for the benefit- of the cominunity ; (3) provide 

 each institution with a due proportion of financial 

 assistance ; and (4) arrange such a scale of salaries 

 as would ensure the appointment and retention of the 

 brains best adapted for the purpose in view. .\t this 

 point central control should cease, and each governing 

 bodv be left to do its own work, with the assistance 

 of its staff. • _ 



The proposal to place museums and libraries under 

 the Board of Education, to which the article alkides, 

 has no reference, I believe, to national museums, but 

 I should like to place on record my strong disapproval 

 of such a step. A museum has many duties to per- 

 form, and education in the sense in which the Board 

 deals with it is only one, and not the most important, 

 of them. On the basis of a very extensive acquaints 

 ance with provincial museum curators, I have noi 

 hesitation in saying that they are fully alive to t+ie 

 educational possibilities of their work. Many of them'> 

 have rendered valuable service to the education, 

 authorities of their localities, and many more would 

 have done so had they been permitted ; but this does 

 not prevent them from seeing that their museumS' 

 have' other functions to perform which do not fall 

 within the purview of education committees as at 

 present constituted. In the first place, they are store- • 

 houses of material for enlarging the bounds of human 

 knowledge ; secondly, they provide objects of intx^rest 

 and beautv for the intellectual and aesthetic contem- 

 plation of the citizen; and, thirdly, they furnish 

 material' for the university student. post-(?raduate artd 

 urtdergraduate. as well as -for children of school age. - 



Mav I sav in conclusion. ..t^^jliytrn .ipsiPpWon. the 



