434 



NATURE 



[March io, 1892 



attitude is, to a large extent, due to the weight which he 

 has wisely and bravely attached to the latter. 



" The proposal," he says, " has not met with the 

 general acceptance which we anticipated for it. On 

 the contrary, it is strenuously opposed by what appears 

 to be the whole body of opinion representing scientific 

 interests ; and, although it might be possible to provide 

 adequately for those interests and at the same time ap- 

 propriate the site proposed to the British Art Gallery, I 

 cannot say that the discussions in that sense with which 

 we have for some time been occupied have so far had 

 any effect in diminishing opposition from those quarters." 



The opposition has, we may remark, not changed be- 

 cause the facts have not changed, and we do not think it 

 would have been started if any modus vivendi had been 

 possible. 



And here we approach a side of the question which 

 shows that as the world grows older, questions of 

 science and art are not managed in this country any 

 better than they used to be, and that some radical change 

 is necessary in our manner of dealing with them. A 

 correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette ascribes this to 

 Tory governtnent. It is easy to see that the adminis- 

 trative system and not party government is to blame. 



Mr. Goschen, in his letter, states that Mr. Tate him- 

 self suggested the site on the science ground, and it 

 may be that some friends of science have said or thought 

 hard things of Mr. Tate in consequence. 



Mr. Tate replies : — 



"I did not suggest the site at the corner of the Im- 

 perial Institute Road, and was only aware of it when it 

 was pointed out to me as the plot offered by the Govern- 

 ment as a desirable site for the Gallery of British Art, 

 and with that site I expressed myself satisfied." 



It must therefore be taken that it was the Govern- 

 ment itself that offered the site. Did the Government 

 offer first and consider afterwards.'' for Mr. Goschen 

 now admits that it " would not be wise to assign this 

 corner site to the Gallery of British Art." Another point 

 can be best stated by again quoting from Mr. Goschen : — 



" When it [the scheme] was first mooted, the intention 

 was that works of British painters from the National 

 and South Kensington Galleries should be transferred to 

 the new gallery. It has since been ascertained that the 

 trustees of the National Gallery are not disposed to fall 

 in with this intention, and that the Science and Art De- 

 partment is precluded by the terms of its various trusts 

 from parting with many of its most important works." 



The Science and Art Department is not more " pre- 

 cluded " now than it was when the land was offered to 

 Mr. Tate. The preclusion dates from 1857, and it 

 apparently was not known to those who, as it would now 

 seem, without consulting the Science and Art Department, 

 were ready both to hand over pictures and land. 



We give these two instances as indications of the result 

 of the present system of dealing administratively with 

 such questions. 



We have already stated that the scientific world is 

 under great obligations to Mr. Goschen ; but we must 

 also point out that the President and Officers of the 

 Royal Society, and the other men of science who 

 memorialized Lord Salisbury and attended the deputa- 

 tion, have rendered a service to science worthy of the 

 high position they hold. 



NO. I 167, VOL. 45] 



There are men of science employed at South Kensing- 

 ton, it is true ; but they, as we have said before, have na 

 ofiicial voice in such matters as these. 



Since it seems we may now hope that the land has 

 been saved for scientific purposes, it is much to be 

 desired that some representative of science in the House 

 of Commons should move for a Committee on which the 

 Treasury and the Office of Works, the Science and Art 

 Department (though judging from recent events the last- 

 named is too frequently ignored when questions directly 

 connected with its duties are under consideration), 

 together with the Royal Society and the Professors of the 

 Royal College of Science, may be represented. 



Mr. Goschen's answer on Monday to Dr. Farquharson's 

 question as to what steps had been taken to provide for the 

 building of the Science Museum, and for the extension of 

 the Royal College of Science so urgently required, shows 

 us clearly that it will be some time before the teaching at 

 South Kensington will have passed through its present 

 camping-out stage. 



Mr. Goschen acknowledges that 



" it has been impossible to take any steps towards be- 

 ginning the erection of a Science Museum or the exten- 

 sion of the Royal College of Science until the question 

 connected with the British Art Gallery had been settled. 

 I myself had visions of a scheme, independently of build- 

 ing on the controversial corner, which I had thought 

 might have given ample satisfaction both for the present 

 j and future to the scientific world, but the matter will 

 now have to be reconsidered." 



In answer to another question Mr. Goschen admitted 

 that the scientific work at South Kensington is at present 

 cramped, and stated that, in conjunction with the Com- 

 missioner of Works, he would endeavour to find some 

 temporary buildings to meet the difficulty before the 

 final scheme is adopted. 



Let us hope that, some time before another generation 

 has passed away, the " administration " which has led tCK 

 the present impasse may be ameliorated, and that useful 

 buildings on the site may prove to everybody the justice 

 of the views held by the men of science in this matter. 



THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CHRISTIAN 

 HUYGENS. 



CEuvres Completes de Christiaan Huygens. Publi^es par 

 la Soci^te Hollandaise des Sciences. Tome qua- 

 trieme, Correspondance 1662-63. (La Haye : Martinus 

 Nijhoff, 1 891.) 



THE fourth volume of the Huygens correspondence> 

 covering the years 1662-63, is now before us. 

 Although the interval, as regards fresh discoveries by 

 the " Dutch Archimedes," was a comparatively barren 

 one, the 249 letters referable to it (to say nothing of 

 supplementary documents) afford materials for much in- 

 struction, and some entertainment. It is much to learn 

 that the greatest astronomer of his time sought to keep 

 in touch with Paris in respect to the cut and colour of 

 his clothes ; nor can we be indifferent as to the precise 

 date of his beginning to wear a wig. On June 15, 1662, 

 at the age of thirty-four, he communicated to his brother 

 Constantine the distressing intelligence of his incipient 

 I baldness ; a remedy for which, in the shape of the best 

 I perruque to be had in Paris, was provided in the following 



