2l8 



NA TURE 



[July 7, 1898 



Closely connected with the high qualifications which 

 should be possessed by curators is the question of thetr 

 remuneration and the inducement which such a career 

 offers to men of scientific training. The author's re- 

 marks on this point may appear despondent, but they 

 are, unfortunately, only too justifiable. 



" In a civilised community the necessities of life, to 

 say nothing of luxuries (which we do not ask for), but 

 the bare necessities of a man of education and refine- 

 ment, who has to associate with his equals, and bring up 

 his children to the life of educated and refined people, 

 involve a certain annual expenditure, and the means 

 afforded by any occupation for this necessary expenditure 

 give a rough and ready test of the appreciation in which 

 such occupation is held" (p. 35). 



Judged by this standard the museum curator stands 

 very low in public estimation. Some consolation, how- 

 ever, may be derived by this class of scientific workers 

 from the consideration that their position is not very 

 different from that of the scientific enthusiast who de- 

 votes his life to research in any branch of pure science 

 which has no immediate market value. The consolation 

 is confessedly a very poor one, but the person with the 

 necessary "scientific qualifications" who accepted the 

 munificent stipend of 50/. per annum (with rooms, coal 

 and gas) as resident curator, meteorological observer 

 and caretaker of the museum and library in a certain 

 town — of which the only redeeming feature appears to 

 be that it was less wealthy than another town which 

 offered 125/. to its museum curator — may find his case 

 paralleled by looking at the advertisements for science 

 teachers which occasionally appear in these columns or 

 elsewhere, where men having an expert knowledge of 

 several branches of science are invited to accept appoint- 

 ments in technical institutes, where their duties are irk- 

 some and heavy and their responsibilities great ; where 

 their time is taken up in drudgery which crushes en- 

 thusiasm and destroys originality, and for which they 

 are offered a stipend that many a butler in a wealthy 

 family would look at with contempt. The position of 

 museum curators is all of a piece with the position of 

 other workers in pure science ; and until the so-called 

 "practical man," in whose hands the administration of 

 the technical instruction money has been placed, has 

 been educated off the face of this country or superseded 

 by legislation, there is very little hope of amelioration. 

 It is instructive to note that in 1853 Prof. Edward Forbes 

 said of museums ^ : — 



" In most cases they are unassisted by local or 

 corporate funds, and dependent entirely upon the sub- 

 scriptions of private individuals. Indeed, any attempt 

 to favour tjie establishment of public museums and 

 libraries through the application of local funds is opposed 

 with a horrible vigour more worthy of a corporation 

 among the Cannibal Islands than within the British 

 Empire. The governing bodies of too many of our 

 towns include no small proportion of advocates of un- 

 intellectual darkness." 



The writer could put in evidence certain local news- 

 papers—published in a town not thirty miles from 

 London— where an attempt to found a public museum 

 and library was met, only last year, in the very*'same 

 spirit which Prof. Forbes described in the above para- 



1 "The Educational Uses of Museums." (Introductory lecture, Session 

 1853-54 ; Museum of Practical Geology.) 



NO. 1497, VOL. 58] 



graph nearly half a century ago.. So little have we- 

 advanced in this direction in fact in the rural districts^ 

 and even in many of the provincial towns, that the- 

 remarks on local museums made by Forbes in 1853 read 

 like the precursors of Sir William Flo-wer's observation, 

 on the same subject in the volume under notice : — 



" It so happens, however, that the value and excellence 

 of almost every provincial museum depend upon the 

 energy and earnestness of one, two, or three individuals^ 

 after whose death or retirement there invariably comes a 

 period of decline and decay" (Forbes, 1853). 



"Voluntary assistance is, no doubt, often valuable. 

 There are many splendid examples of what it may do in- 

 country museums, but it can never be depended on for 

 any long continuance. Death or removals, flagging zeal^ 

 and other causes, tell severely in the long run against 

 this resource" (Flower, 1895). 



The history of too many local museums is unfortunately 

 comprised in these paragraphs, and the writer has vividly 

 in mind some very pregnant remarks in this strain made 

 by Sir William Flower at Chingford in 1895, at the open- 

 ing of that excellent little local museum founded by the 

 Essex Field Club. We can only add that every one of 

 the seven essays on museums reprinted in the present 

 volume deserves most careful perusal, and alt who are 

 interested in the subject will do well to study them. 



The eight essays on general biology, which follow^ 

 those on museums, abound with interesting topics. 

 Although, no doubt, many readers of these columns are 

 quite familiar with these addresses, it is refreshing to- 

 have brought before us again the views of the author orb 

 the development of the Ungulata (Royal Institution, 

 lecture, 1873), his remarks on classification and nomen- 

 clature (Address to Section D, British Association, 1878),. 

 and the two lectures on whales delivered, respectively, at 

 the Royal Institution in 1883 and at the Royal ColoniaB 

 Institute in 1895. Throughout all these biologicaB 

 essays runs the leading idea of evolution, of which 

 doctrine Sir William Flower has always been a con- 

 sistent and temperate advocate. The perusal of some 

 of these essays induces feelings akin to those with which 

 the old soldier recounts his past campaigns. The 

 arguments with which hostile criticism had to be met 

 in the early days may now have lost their point, but the 

 younger reader must never forget that the great battle 

 of evolution has been fought and won since Sir Williami 

 Flower entered the field, and a calm consideration of the 

 contents of the present volume will show that no in- 

 significant part in this struggle has been borne by its- 

 author. In fact, one of the most prominent episodes in 

 the history of the spread of the new doctrine beyond the 

 circle of workers in science was the memorable address 

 on " Recent Advances in Natural Science in relation tO' 

 the Christian Faith," given at the meeting of the Church 

 Congress at Reading in 1883, and reprinted as the ninth 

 essay of the present volume. If the consideration of 

 these biological essays calls forth any feeling of regret 

 on the part of those who are now actively engaged in 

 carrying on the work of research, it must be that their 

 distinguished author was unable by virtue of his officiaJ 

 duties to enter into the later controversies which have 

 divided the school of evolutionists. Sir William Flower's, 

 essays read like very " orthodox " Darwinism ; yet there 

 are few whose opinions] on such topics as heredity and 



