64 



NATURE 



[May 21, 189: 



When receiving the deputation on Tuesday last, a third scheme 

 was suggested, if not distinctly enunciated, by the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, that the Science School extension and the 

 Science Museum should be built on the other side of the plot 

 given to the Art Gallery, but both on the ground recently 

 acquired facing the Imperial Institute. 



The two earlier projects having as it were blown themselves 

 up, it is only necessary for me to deal with the last. 



It has been argued that the recent Committee on the science 

 collections, of which I was a member, only asked for 90,000 

 square feet of exhibiting space, and that more than that area can 

 be obtained on the vacant ground opposite the Imperial Institute. 

 But it must be remembered that, as stated by our Committee, 

 this space did not provide for offices, workshops, &c. — a con- 

 siderable item ; that it did not in any way provide for the 

 extension of the Science School ; and that it was made some 

 time before an immense impetus was given to technical educa- 

 tion by the Technical Instruction Acts and the grants under the 

 Customs and Excise Act of last year. 



Now, the vacant ground recently acquired — omitting the strip 

 part of which has already been sold, and the remainder of which 

 is going to be sold for private dwelling houses — is about one- 

 third of the land devoted to the Natural History Museum, and 

 almost exactly of the same area as that already covered by the 

 Natural History Museum buildings, which are shortly to be 

 enlarged. 



Is it unreasonable for the scientific man to urge that this 

 vacant land is not too much to provide for the whole range of 

 sciences other than those accommodated in the Natural History 

 Museum ; for a proper Museum of Machinery and Inventions ; 

 for a large extension of the Science School ; and possibly for 

 the collections from the Jermyn Street Museum ? Surely there 

 can be but one answer to this question. 



Why — and we have never yet obtained an answer to this 

 inquiry — will not the munificent donor be satisfied with another 

 site ? Why are the existing physical laboratory and scientific 

 classrooms to be removed, to allow an art gallery to be inter- 

 posed between portions of the school ? 



Even if it be maintained that the ground south of the Imperial 

 Institute Road will provide for the immediate wants of the 

 Science School and collections, is it too much to ask that we 

 should look a little ahead, and not now initiate another hugger- 

 mugger arrangement of the collections and schools at South 

 Kensington, which all will lament in a few years ? 



10 Bramham Gardens, S.W., Henry E. Roscoe. 



May 15. 



Notwithstanding that the recent deputation to the Pre- 

 sident of the Council and the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 was headed by Sir William Thomson— the man of science whom 

 we in this country regard as first among all others, both on 

 account of his individual achievements and on account of his 

 occupying the representative position of President of the Royal 

 Society— not one single word was said by Mr. Goschen in 

 explanation or justification of the course which he has adopted ; 

 we therefore venture, with all respect, to assert that the Royal 

 Society has just cause to complain when one of its Fellows — for 

 Mr. Goschen is one of us — thus treats representations urged by 

 its President. 



Where the science collections are to be lodged, where the 

 extensions of the Science Schools are to be placed, are in them- 

 selves all-important questions ; but a still graver issue remains — 

 whether a weight of opinion of the magnitude represented by 

 the memorial recently published in your columns is to be entirely 

 set aside because an anonymous donor has offered £%o, 000 plus 

 a collection of pictures, valued at another ;^7S,ooo. That a 

 Government which has at its head a Prime Minister whose in- 

 terest in science is so marked, should thus disregard the opinion 

 offered by so representative a body of men, is one of those 

 things which even an Englishmen can scarcely understand : in 

 no other country in Europe would such action be possible. 



We cannot help thinking that a mistake has been made in 

 calling public attention too exclusively to the housing of the 

 science collections — the extension of the Science Schools appears 

 to be a far more important matter. Attention has often been 

 called of late to what is going on abroad, especially in Ger- 

 many ; to the unremitting attention that is being given to 

 scientific instruction, and to the effect that is being produced 

 on manufacturing industries of all kinds by the high develop- 

 ment of science and of the application of every kind of scientific 



NO. 1125, VOL. 44] 



requirement. Unfortunately, in this country such matters have 

 not yet entered into the domain of practical politics. But in the 

 opinion of many among us there cannot be a question that almost 

 superhuman efforts are necessary if this country is to regain the 

 position which it has given away to foreigners by its neglect to 

 apply the highest developments of chemical and physical science 

 to industry. 



The accommodation at present afforded by the Royal College 

 of Science laboratories is not only inadequate, but beneath con- 

 tempt in comparison with that to be found in Continental cities, 

 such even as Gottingen and Ziirich, for example; and those of 

 us who have some knowledge of modern requirements know full 

 well that every inch of space on the Imperial Institute Road 

 side of the block of land on which stands the Natural History 

 Museum will before long be required for the purposes of the 

 Royal College of Science. The intrusion of an art gallery into 

 this space would have a most disastrous effect by irretrievably 

 preventing the proper and natural expansion of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Science laboratories. This expansion must necessarily 

 be rapid, for science is developing throughout the civilized world 

 at a compound interest rate, and the grants recently made by 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer in aid of technical instruction 

 must lead even this country to fully appreciate the value of 

 experimental studies, and to insist on proper laboratory accom- 

 modation being provided. 



Surely the munificent donor will accept for his gallery some 

 other site equally good for art, and not insist on striking a blow 

 at science by taking a piece of land already set apart for 

 laboratories. 



Henry E. Armstrong, 



Secretary of the Chemical Society. 

 W. E. Ayrton, 



President of the Physical Society. 



It seems probable that, as the discussion goes on, 

 some side light will be thrown upon the motives of 

 those who have the " munificent donor " in hand. 

 Although we have not room for the whole of a letter 

 from Mr. Marshall of Edinburgh, the general drift of it 

 may be stated as follows : — 



Mr. Marshall's main point is that, according to the state- 

 ments made by Sir Frederick Leighton in his speech at the 

 Royal Academy banquet, the new gallery is to be used as " a 

 worthy home for the permanent display of the works of con- 

 temporary native artists" — which "means, being interpreted," 

 says Mr. Marshall, "a worthy home for the works of Royal 

 Academicians and their friends." The object for which Sir 

 James Linton, Sir J .C. Robinson, Mr. Orrocks, and others have 

 been contending is that there should be adequate " recognition 

 throughout its whole range, both as rejjards masters and 

 mediums of work, of the artistic triumphs of the masters of 

 our English school." What these gentlemen have urged and 

 incontestably proved is that while foreign art, and especially 

 early Italian art, is fully if not excessively represented in our 

 National Gallery, and while a few of our great native artists 

 (notably Turner and Constable), and many of our small ones, 

 are represented far beyond what is necessary or even desirable, 

 our native water-colour art is practically not recognized at all, 

 and many of the very greatest of our masters in oil, who were 

 (most of them) masters in water-colour also — Cox, Miller, 

 Barret, De Wint, Crome, Cotman, Stark, Vincent, and others — 

 are either conspicuous by their absence, or miserably represented 

 as regards quality or quantity or both. If the public wants a 

 "permanent display of the works of contemporary native 

 artists," and if _ a generous millionaire is willing to provide "a 

 worthy home " for such productions, the thing can be done. 

 "But I object," continues Mr. Marshall, "to our astute 

 Academicians, with the accomplished President at their head, 

 calmly stepping in and absorbing a movement at the very mo- 

 ment of its success, diverting it from its legitimate purpose, and, 

 after having stoned the prophets of English art while they lived, 

 now endeavouring to steal the stones that others have quarried 

 and hewn for the martyrs' monument in order to erect with them 

 another comfortable mansion for themselves." Mr. Marshall is 

 of opinion that "provincials" have opportunities more than 

 enough of seeing contemporary art. Their wish now is to have 

 a chance of studying fine specimens, authoritatively selected, of 

 the acknowledged masters of our English school. 



