March 25, 1920] 



NATURE 



IX) I 



by the Government, and reporting annually on the 

 work and requirements of its own particular museum. 

 Such an institution is Greenwich Observatory. Limit- 

 ing my suggestions to the natural history sciences, I 

 would have a separate "' museum" for zoology and 

 animal palaeontology; another for geology (the study 

 of the history of the earth's crust, not merely palae- 

 ontology) with mineralogy and petrology, uniting the 

 museum of the Geological Survey with certain portions 

 of the British Museum ; another for botany formed by 

 the removal to the great and flourishing establishment 

 at Kew of the botanical department of the British 

 Museum ; and another for anthropology and human 

 palaeontology. There seems to me no reason, no 

 advantage, in mixing up the administration of these 

 great centres of special study and research with one 

 another or with the museum of ancient art, or for 

 associating any of these with the great national public 

 library. 



Our museums are liable to suffer from the erroneous 

 notion that their chiej purpose is to furnish ready 

 instruction to school-children and "the general public." 

 .Speaking with special reference to natural history, I 

 think it will be admitted that (as in the case of 

 precious records, antiquities, books, etc.) the main 

 and most important function of a museum is the 

 acquisition, study, and safe and permanent guardian- 

 ship of specimens — specimens which are often unique 

 or of extreme rarity and value, and form the actual 

 evidential basis of the natural history sciences. This 

 guardianship is necessarily to be associated, with 

 perennial study and development of the collections 

 and abundant publication of finely illustrated mono- 

 graphs, catalogues, and descriptions by the museum 

 director and his staff. These duties are, in spite of 

 obstacles, performed in a highly creditable way by 

 the present staff of the Natural History Museum, 

 which, were it free from the dead-weight of an un- 

 sympathetic and irresponsible committee of trustees, 

 would render even more abundant ser\'ices to science 

 and the nation. 



Tn my judgment, the exhibition of the collections 

 in g-alleries, through which the public may promenade 

 or be nersonally conducted bv itinerant lecturers, is 

 a matter of '^tih ordinate importance. But it is one of 

 great value to the public, and must be seriously taken 

 in hand and dealt with wisely by the director of each 

 museum. It is the simple fact that many (but not 

 all) of the fine thin£?s in museums of natural history 

 can readily be exhibited to the public so as to give 

 pleasure and instruction, and it is desirable to enlist 

 the sympathy and interest of the public by exhibiting 

 with the greatest skill and judgment specimens so dis- 

 played and labelled as readily to attract attention and 

 convey information suited to those who have no special 

 knowledge of the branch of science in which the 

 specimens have their place. 



It is, however, of thp utmost consequence that this 

 kind of exhibition should be strictly limited in amount, 

 and that what is done in the way of such exhibition 

 should be the very best possible — the specimens most 

 carefully chosen because they can be well seen and 

 appreciated when in a glass case and without being 

 handled, and because the information which they and 

 others placed with them afford is of first-rate import- 

 ance or of a specially fascinating character. It is a 

 profound mistake to attempt to set out the mass of 

 the contents of a mu.seum in this way. Neither space 

 nor skilful design and handiwork can be aflforded for 

 "exhibiting" huge collections in this style. The 

 public is wearied and confused by too freat profusion, 

 and galleries which are needed for the preservation 

 and studv of collections by exnerts are liable to be 

 sacrificed to the satisfaction of a mistaken demand 

 for the setting out of a sort of high-class Noah's Ark 

 NO. 2630, VOL. 105] 



through which a visitor may wander in a state of 

 dreamy contentment, hypnotised by the endless stream 

 of queer or brilliant things appearing and disapf>earing 

 before him without any effort or comprehension on his 

 parti 



In any case, it is, I think, important not to allow 

 the great public museums to become class-rooms for 

 ill-provided schools. I should like to see the system 

 which is used in the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York introduced. There is a large 

 lecture-room in the museum, and courses of lectures 

 on the contents of the museum, illustrated by photo- 

 graphic lantern-slides, are given by highly qualified 

 members of the museum staff. Copies of the lectures 

 and the lantern-slides are also supplied by the museum 

 to schools around New York, so that pupils can be 

 prepared by them beforehand for recurring visits to 

 the museum. Thous^h the specimens in a museum 

 may be very thoroughly and well labelled, as in Crom- 

 well Road, it is the fact that no method of insisting 

 upon attention to a label has yet been devised. The 

 public seem to be scared by labels. Nothing is so cer- 

 tain to secure attention as a man standing up in front 

 of the visitor and telling him all about a specimen 

 whilst pointing to this or that part of it. 



The Natural History Museum has more of its col- 

 lections in quiet study-rooms and less of them 

 paraded in bewildering rows in show-cases than 

 has any other public museum in Europe, so far as I 

 know. But it has, nevertheless (in my opinion), 

 too many galleries and cases given up to public 

 exhibition. Even now (after the heroic efforts of Sir 

 William Flower, in whose footsteps I followed in this 

 matter) many of the cases are overcrowded and many 

 are hopelessly placed as regards lighting, and should 

 be abandoned as public show-cases. 



There appears to have been no attempt on the part 

 of the architect of the Cromwell Road mu.seum to 

 erect a building with the lighting or height and shape 

 of galleries necessary for such a museum. The 

 trustees were neither consulted in the matter nor com- 

 petent to give an opinion if they had been. 



I should wish, in conclusion, to refer anv readers 

 of Nature who may wish to see a little fuller state- 

 ment of my opinions concerning the scope and methods 

 of "museums" to the chapter on museums in my 

 "Science from an Easy Chair," second series, iqi3, 

 pp. 3To-2q. E. Ray Lankester. 



I cordially welcome the suggestion in the leading 

 article in Nature of March ii that the Natural 

 History and other science museums should be placed 

 under the Department of Scientific and Industrial 

 Research. For this Department to take over the 

 Natural History Museum', the Science Museum, the 

 Must^um of Practical Geology (and the Geo- 

 logical Survey), and Kew Gardens there need be 

 no change in its constitution. No Royal Commission 

 need be invoked, for the Department would be merely 

 undertaking duties for which it was formed, these 

 institutions being the depositories of most of the basal 

 collections, the facts, upon which much of science is 

 founded. The administration of all could be carried 

 out under one scheme, since the work of all is akin, 

 and the men required to recruit their staffs are drawn 

 from the same class of university men. having similar 

 early training, with diverse specialisations later on. 



The oresent condition in the above museums is most 

 unsatisfactory in respect to differences in the pay and 

 position of their staffs. Thus, according to Whitaker, 

 the assistants at Kew and in the Science Mu.seum 

 start at 300Z. a vear, while geologists and naturalists 

 with similar training start in the two others at 150L; 

 all have war bonuses at present. At Kew there are 



