234 



NA TURE 



[July 6, 189^ 



Maunsell descended to ihe Tigris, and followed that liver to its 

 mouth, making excursions into the mountainous country to the 

 east. Only in southern Kurdistan is the population exclusively 

 Kurdish. North of Mosul there is a considerable Christian 

 el( ment. Not many years ago Kurdistan was a sepaiate province, 

 ruled over by Kurdish heys, whose strongholds were Amadia, 

 Rawanduz, Sulaimanie, and other places. But all this is 

 changed, and the country is now under the direct control of 

 Turl-ish officials. The original Kurdish organisation was tribal, 

 and the prevailing habits of Ihe tribes are still nomadic and 

 pastoral, but have been modified by local conditions. Thus, 

 the Kurds of the mountainous district north of Lake Van 

 remain in villages all through the severe winter, the great dis- 

 tance being a bar to migration into a warmer plain country. In 

 the summer, however, they leave their village dwellings for 

 their tents, which they often pilch close to their winter home. 

 In the rugged Dersim country the Kurds are perforce sedentary. 

 In central and southern Kurdistan the tribes have easy access to 

 the Mesopotamian plain, and a large number of them live in 

 tents all the year round. 



At a special meeting of the Royal Geographical Society held 

 on Monday at London University, Burlington House, it was 

 decided, by 172 to 158 votes, that it was inexpedient to admit 

 ladits as ordinary t'ellows of the Society. 



A Dalziel's telegram says that Lieutenant Peary, with Mrs. 

 Peaiy and twelve companions, left New York on July 2 in the 

 whalmg barque Fa'con, on his second expedition to the Arctic 

 regions. 



MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION.^ 



I. 



T'HE Museums Association is one of the youngest of the 

 numerous social organisations which it is thought expe- 

 dient at the present day to constitute in order to give facilities 

 for the interchange of ideas on subjects interesting to a special 

 group of men. It is, indeed, only in the fourth year of its 

 existence, and this is the first time that a meeting has been 

 held in London, the centre in which are gathered the great 

 national collections, and in which reside so considerable a 

 number of persons engaged in their custody. The association 

 claims York as its birthplace, and Liverpool, Cambridge, and 

 Manchester have in succession afforded it hospitality and en- 

 joyed the advantage of its presence. 



We all meet with one object in view. We are all impressed 

 with the value— with the necessity, I should say— of the 

 Museum (using the word in its widest sense, as a collection of 

 works of art and of nature) in the intellectual advance of 

 mankind. 



How could art make any progress, how could it even exist, 

 if its productions were destroyed as soon as they were created ; 

 if there were no museums, private or public, in which they 

 could be preserved and made available to mankind then and 

 thereafter ? How could science be studied without ready access 

 to the materials upon which knowledge is built up ? In many 

 branches of science the progress is mainly commensurate with 

 the abundance and accessibility of such materials. 



Though the first duty of museums is, without question, to 

 preserve the materials upon which the history of mankind and 

 the knowledge of science is based, any one acquainted with the 

 nuinerous succession of essays, addresses, lectures, and papers 

 which constitute the museum literature of the last thirty years 

 must recognise the gradual development of the conception that 

 the museum of the future is to have for its complete ideal, not 

 only the simple preservation of the objects contained in it, but 

 also their arrangement in such a manner as to provide for the 

 instruction of those who visit it. The value of a museum will 

 be tested not only by its contents, but by the treatment of those 

 contents as a means of the advancement of knowledge. Though 

 this is the general consensus of opinion, as expressed in the 

 literature just referred to, there is naturally still much diverg- 

 ence as to the best methods by which this ideal may be carried 

 out, and there are still many practical difficulties to be over- 

 come before the views so ably advocated on paper can be re- 

 duced to the test of actual performance. It is with a hope of 



> Address of the President, Sir William H. Flower, K.CB., F R.S., &c. 

 LoDQoa Meeting, July 3, 189^. 



assisting in the solution of these difficulties that this Associa- 

 tion has been founded. 



If in the few words with which I am expected to preface ihe 

 real work of the Association I shall be found to dwell too ex- 

 clusively upon the subject of natural history museums, I must 

 apologise to many fiiends and members of the Association who 

 are present. It must be distinctly understood that under the 

 word museum we include collections of all kinds formed for ihe 

 advancement of any branch of knowledge, except those specially 

 devoted to books, which already are cared for by the " Libr£.ries 

 Association " — on the model of which ours was formed. I hope 

 that in our papers at this meeting and in future presidential 

 addresses we shall have all branches of museum work fairly 

 represented. 



It is my fate to have been born what is commonly called a 

 "naturalist." I hardly remember the time when I was not a 

 possessor of a museum, but it always took a distinctly biological 

 direction. Hence, although by no means unapprecialive of other 

 branches of museum work, T shall confine myself chiefly 10 that 

 part of the subject upon which I can speak from personal ex- 

 perience. Even in this branch time will compel me to limit my- 

 self to observations upon some of the larger questions connected 

 with our subject, leaving details for discussion in our subsequent 

 meetings. 



One great difference between the work of the curator of an art 

 museum and that of one devoted to what are called natural 

 history subjects, is that in the case of the former the "specimi ns 

 he has to preserve and exhibit come into his hands very nearly 

 in the condition in which they will have to remain. A picture, 

 a vase, a piece of old armour, or a statue, beyond a certain 

 amount ol tender care in cleaning and repairing, which is more 

 or less mechanical in its nature, is ready lor its place upon the 

 museum shelves. But this is far from being the case with the 

 greater number of natural objects. Not only do they require 

 special methods of preservation, but very often their value as 

 museum specimens depends entirely upon the skill, labour, 

 patience, and knowledge expended upon them. In specimens 

 illustrating biological subjects the highest powers of the museum 

 curator are called forth. A pr.perly mounted animal or a 

 carefully-displayed anatomical preparation is in itself a work of 

 art, based upon a natural substratum. In few branches of 

 museum woik has there been greater progress in late years than 

 in this, and few ofl^er still further scope for development. 



Partly from this cause, and partly from the fact that art has 

 for a longer period and to a greater degrte engaged the atten- 

 tion of civilised man than nature, the method of preservatie^n, 

 arrangement, and exhibition of works of art are on the 

 whole further advanced than are those of natural objects. 

 But no one can deny that there is still in many galleries 

 devoted to the exhibition of works of art of various kinds 

 great room for improvement. There is generally far too 

 great crowding ; too many objects so placed that ihe tallest 

 man cannot see them properly, even when standing on 

 tiptoe ; too many others placed so low that they can only be 

 exa iiined by lying down on the floor ; too many completely 

 spoiled by the juxtaposition of other incongruous objects, or by 

 unsuitable settings. It is only in a very few public museums 

 (I may instance as a conspicuous example the splendid museum 

 of antiquities at Naples) that the immense advantage to be 

 gained by ample space and appropriate surroundings in aiding 

 the formation of a just idea of the beauty and interest of each 

 specimen contained in it can be properly appreciated. Correct 

 classification, g )od labelling, isolation of each object from its 

 neighcours, the provision of a suitable background, and above all 

 of a position in which it can be readily and distinctly seen, are 

 absolute requisites in art museums as well as in those of natural 

 history. Nothing detracts so much from the enjoyment and 

 advantage derived from a visit to a museum as the overcrowding 

 of the specimens exhibited. The development of the new 

 museum idea to be spoken of later on will be one way by which 

 this can be remedied in the public galleries ; but if museums 

 are what they ought to be, and what 1 ven'ure to believe they 

 will be in the future, the question of space on a considerably 

 larger scale than has hitherto been thought of will have to be 

 faced. This is of course mainly a matter of expense, and after 

 all but a small matter compared with expenditure now con- 

 sidered necessary in other directions. There are persons who 

 think the country made a tremendous effort in building so much 

 as is yet finished of ihe new Natural History Museum in the 

 Cromwell Road, and shak^ their heads at the expenditure 



NO. 1236, VOL. 48] 



