July 28, i 



NA TURE 



295 



to be accommodated wholly or in part in other buildings ; 

 and years ago it was agreed on all hands that the needful 

 accommodation should be provided on the west side of 

 Exhibition Road, on the plot of ground between the 

 Imperial Institute Road and the Natural History 

 Museum. 



This ground had been purchased by the Government 

 in 1890, and sold by the Royal Commission for the Exhibi- 

 tion of 1 85 1, at one-third its value, for the purpose of erect- 

 ing scientific buildings on it. 



But quite recently all this has been changed ; the 

 perfectly novel suggestion being made that a chemical 

 and physical laboratory should be built on the east side of 

 Exhibition Road on a part of the plot of vacant ground 

 where it was proposed some years ago to erect buildings 

 to complete the Art Museum. In fact, Mr. Webb's plans 

 to cover all the vacant space with Art buildings were 

 accepted. 



Under the old and accepted arrangement we were to 



Fig. 2 shows the space thus available contrasted with 

 the areas actually occupied by the buildings of certain 

 continental Chemical and Physical Laboratories, on the 

 same scale. It will be seen at once that London will be 

 no better off than Graz ! 



We next turn to the land available on the west side 

 of Exhibition Road. The plot which the Government 

 has obtained from the '51 Exhibition Commissioners for 

 a nominal sum for the purpose of the erection of Science 

 buildings, is that bounded by the Imperial Institute, 

 Exhibition and Cromwell Roads, and Queen's Gate. It 

 contains 20 acres ; of this more than 12 acres are allo- 

 cated to the Natural History Museum. The remainder 

 has to provide for the Inorganic Sciences, Mechanics, 

 Physics and Chemistry in all their branches, and their 

 teaching and applications to industry. It will be seen 

 that the space is far too small for these needs, if the 

 precedent set by the Natural History Museum is to be 

 followed ; and it must not be forgotten that in relation 



-Comparison of the space proposed to be devoted to the Chemical and Physical Laboratories at South Kensington, with the space devoted 



similar buildings on the Continent. 



have Art, with power of expansion, on the east side, and 

 Science, with power of expansion, on the west side, of 

 Exhibition Road. 



Under the new proposal there would be no possibility 

 of continuous and properly provided expansion of either. 

 Adjacent Art buildings would strangle Science, and ad- 

 iacent Science buildings would strangle Art. Hence the 

 result would be disastrous for both, and it is on this ground 

 that we now find the Royal Society and the Royal 

 Academy shoulder to shoulder, and sending almost 

 identical memorials to the Prime Minister. 



The plan of the neighbourhood of the South Kensington 

 and Natural History Museums (Fig. i) shows, bounded 

 by a black line, the space we may roughly take as avail- 

 able for the Science buildings on the vacant ground 

 south of the existing Art Museum, on the assumption 

 that this vacant ground is divided equally between Art 

 and Science. 



NO. 1500, VOL. 58] 



to Natural History there is no provision for teaching 

 in the Museum, and from the nature of the subject no 

 applications. 



ASPECTS OF SUN WORSHIP AMONG THE 

 MOKI INDIANS} 



THERE probably survives no tribe of Indians in the 

 United States which has preserved its aboriginal 

 worship in a purer form than the so-called Mokis, a group 

 of agricultural people of north-eastern Arizona. These 

 Indians live in seven villages or pueblos, situated on 

 inaccessible mesas, and number a few less than 2000 

 souls. They inhabit the same territory, and in the case 

 of the denizens of their largest pueblo, Oraibi, live on the 



1 " The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi. 

 pologiit, March- April 1898.) 



(Tkt American Anthro- 



