84 



NA TURE 



[May 26, 1898 



camp and jungle life ; for, by the fortune of circum- 

 stances, it falls within my province not only to make 

 collections, but to preside over their arrangement for 

 exhibition. And the advantages of this dual function 

 are self-evident : a tour concluded, the work of museum 

 arrangement commences ; and here one is met with an 

 obvious difficulty at the outset. For two systems of 

 arrangement are possible, each with much to be said 

 both for and against it, and a selection of one or the 

 other has to be made ; for the material collected, and 

 available space will not, as a rule, suffice for both. 

 Either the collections may be arranged according to the 

 nature of the exhibit, e.g. models of boats, sacrificial 

 utensils, musical instruments, games, images, &c. ; or 

 each tribe or community may be represented in its 

 various aspects, animal and social^ in a single case or in 

 adjacent cases. For myself, I give the preference to 

 the latter system, mainly on the score of convenience 

 and finality of arrangement. Very effective, I remember, 

 in one of my galleries^, were some life-size photographic 

 transparencies of Andamanese heads, presented by Mr. 

 Portman to the ethnological section of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta, when I was in temporary charge 

 thereof some years ago. So, too, were the models of 

 the Andamanese, executed, if my memory serves me 

 rightly, by a Bengali modeller. But the utility of most 

 models, which I have seen, is marred by the want of care 

 in representing the colour of the skin, and in decorating 

 the model with the proper jewellery, which, in many cases, 

 is absolutely characteristic of a particular tribe. 



Writing elsewhere, I said : " The more remote and 

 unknown the race or tribe, the more valuable is the 

 evidence afforded by the study of its institutions, from 

 the probability of their being less mixed with those of 

 European origin." Tribes which, only a few years ago, 

 were living in a wild state, clad in a cool and simple garb 

 of forest leaves, buried away in the depths of the jungle, 

 and living, like pigs and bears, on roots, honey, and 

 other forest produce, have now come under the domest- 

 icating, and sometimes detrimental influence of contact 

 with Europeans, with a resulting modification of their 

 conditions of life, morality, and even language. The 

 Paniyans of the Wynaad and the Irulas, who inhabit the 

 slopes of the Nllgiris, now work regularly for daily wage 

 on planters' estates ; and I was lately shocked by seeing 

 a Toda boy studying for the third standard, instead of 

 tending the buffaloes of his " mand." Ample proof can 

 be adduced in support of the fact that European in- 

 fluence, import-trade with other countries, and the struggle 

 for existence, are bringing about a rapid change (sad 

 from an ethnographic standpoint) among the natives of 

 Southern India, both tame and wild. It has recently 

 been said that " there will be plenty of money and people 

 available for anthropological research when there are no 

 more aborigines" ; and it behoves our museums in Great 

 Britain and its dependencies to waste no time in com- 

 pleting their anthropological collections. 



I gathered from observation when in London (i) that 

 man as a social and intellectual being is illustrated with 

 the unavoidable want of proportion, when no systematic 

 scheme for the regular expansion of the collections is at 

 work at the British Museum, Bloomsbury ; (2) that it is 

 under contemplation to illustrate man and the varieties 

 of the human family from a purely animal point of view 

 at the British Museum (Natural History), South Ken- 

 sington ; (3) that skulls must be sought for at the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields ; (4) that lec- 

 tures and anthropological literature are available to 

 members at the Anthropological Institute, Hanover 

 Square. To this must be added (5) Mr. Galton's labor- 

 atory. Surely a great want of centralisation, such as 

 might well be remedied, is indicated here. And as I 

 wandered, both in and out of the London season, through 

 the deserted galleries of the Imperial Institute, I could 



NO. 1 49 1, VOL. 58] 



not refrain from speculating whether, with a radical 

 change of policy for good, this much-discussed building 

 could not be converted into our great National Museum 

 of Ethnology, where man shall be represented fully and 

 in every aspect, and where those interested in ethno- 

 logical research could find under one roof a skilled 

 staff to appeal to in their amateur difficulties, collections, 

 literature, lectures, and anthropological laboratory. For 

 the great mass of visitors to popular museums, who 

 come under the heading of sightseers, it is of primary 

 importance that the exhibits should be attractive. And 

 I feel convinced that, were an ethnological museum up to 

 the high standard of the British Museum (Natural History) 

 established, it would, when its reputation became known, 

 be, like Madame Tussaud's, widely resorted to by the 

 general public, and that, by an admixture of free and 

 paying days, and by the charge of a small fee for exam- 

 ination in the laboratory, it might be made to a certain 

 extent self-supporting, and not entail a great burthen of 

 expenditure on the State. Edgar Thurston. 



Madras Government Museum. 



NOTES. 



We are glad to notice that the Queen's birthday honours 

 include the name of Dr. John Murray, F.R.S., of Challenger 

 renown, who has been appointed a Knight Commander of the 

 Order of the Bath (K.C.B.). 



The Chemical Society's banquet to Lord Playfair and six 

 other past presidents who have completed fifty years' fellowship 

 of the Society, is to be held at the Hotel Metropole on Thurs- 

 day, June 9. 



The death is announced of M. Souillart, professor of 

 astronomy in the University of Lille, and correspondant in the 

 Section of Astronomy of the Paris Academy of Sciences. 



The Department of Science and Art has received informationi 

 that the fifth International Congress of Hydrology, Climatology, 

 and Geology will be opened at Liege on September 25. 



The eighty-first annual meeting of the Societe helvetique des 

 sciences naturelles will be held at Berne on August 1-3. This- 

 will be the sixth occasion upon which Berne has been the meet- 

 ing-place of the Society. The reception will take place in the 

 great hall of the Museum on the evening of Sunday, July 31. 

 On the following day there will be a general meeting, a banquet, 

 and a fete, and the sections will meet for the consideration of 

 papers on August 2. The sections and their presidents are as. 

 follows :— Mathematics, astronomy and physics, MM. Graf, 

 Huber, Sidler ; chemistry, MM. de Kostanecki, Friedheim ;. 

 botany, M. L. Fischer ; zoology, M. Th. Studer ; anthro- 

 polog}', M. Th. Studer ; geology, mineralogy, petrography and 

 paleontology, M. A. Baltzer ; physical geography (comprising 

 geodesy and meteorology), M. E. Bruckner ; anatomy and 

 physiology, MM. Strasser and Kronecker ; medical clinics, 

 MM. Kocher, Miiller, Sahli ; hygiene and bacteriology, MM. 

 Girard, Tavel ; pharmacy and alimentation, M. Tschirch ,-. 

 veterinary science, M. Berdez ; agriculture and sylviculture, 

 M. Coaz. 



At the Royal Institution on Thursday, June 2, Dr. Edward 

 E. Klein delivers the first of two lectures on " Modern Methods 

 and their Achievements in Bacteriology," and on Saturday, 

 June 4, Dr. Richard Caton begins a course of two lectures on 

 "The Temples and Ritual of Asklepios at Epidaurus and 

 Athens." The Friday evening discourse on June 3 is by Prof. 

 W. M. Flinders Petrie, on " The Development of the Tomb in 

 Egypt " ; that on June 10 is by Lord Rayleigh, whose subject 

 is " Some Experiments with the Telephone." 



