160 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[November, 1889. 



the ring is struck a sharp, quick blow, it will 

 be displaced without moving the coin, which 

 will drop vertic;illy into the boitle, its inertia 



preventing it from sharing the movement of 

 the cardboard. 



[Original in The Popular Saenct News.\ 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL 



HISTORY. 



BY K. B. CLAYPOLE. 



At the International Congress of Geologists, held 

 last year in London, the New Natural History Mu- 

 seum at South Kensington formed a theme on which 

 all members could converse with enthusiasm. The 

 magnificent collections, their admirable arrange- 

 ment, the plan of the building, and the means taken 

 both to diffuse and advance scientific knowledge, 

 elicited much praise; and justly, too, since some of 

 the best intellects of the age have striven to make it 

 what it is found today. What is that.' Approach 

 it and see. 



The early Romanesque style of the building, the 

 length of the front, and its cheerful coloring are the 

 first points to strike the eye. Drawing nearer, we 

 find the latter pleasing effect due to a facing of terra- 

 cotta. A broad flight of stone steps takes us easily 

 to the main door of the Museum, and, entering, we 

 find that blocks of terra-cotta, bearing typical de- 

 signs, have been also exclusively used for the wall 

 surfaces of the interior. We are now in the great 

 central apartment, and facing us on the first landing 

 of the staircase at the end of the hall, is the marble 

 statue of Charles Darwin, executed by Mr. F. E. 

 Boehm, R. A., as part of the memorial raised by 

 public subscription. An admirable figure it is, and 

 admirably placed, reminding us by its pose of calm 

 contemplation that we are not here to gaze upon a 

 "mighty maze" of heterogeneous curiosities, but to 

 learn, if we can, something of the plan on which we 

 and our surroundings have been produced. Surely 

 if we can learn it anywhere, it is here ; for this hall, 

 under the personal supervision of the director of the 

 Museum, Professor W. H. Flower, is being arranged 

 for the express purpose of giving us an insight into 

 some of Nature's methods. Already many of the 

 alcoves are fitted with cases of specimens illustrating 

 the most important points in the structure of the 

 principal types of animal and plant life. 



The first alcove, for instance, shows the modifica- 

 tions of the skeleton of the mammalian type of ver- 

 tebrated animals. A complete skeleton of a large 



monkey is laid out diagramatically on a tablet, the 

 bones separate from one another and named. Close 

 to it is an articulated skeleton of a similar monkey, 

 with the bones also named. From these an idea of 

 the general framework of a mammalian vertebrate 

 may be obtained, and the skeletons of a man, a bat, 

 a sloth, a baboon, an antelope, and a porpoise 

 afford examples of special changes to suit different 

 conditions of life. The structure of limbs is simi- 

 larly displayed. A diagram at the top of the case 

 shows the correspondence of the hand and foot in 

 its completely typical form, with the names applied 

 by anatomists to the different bones. Underneath, 

 different series of specimens exhibit the same com- 

 mon plan, running through infinite modifications 

 of detail. One series shows the stages by whicTi 

 a typical five-fingered hand becomes converted into 

 the single-fingered hand of the horse, and another, 

 beginning with the same five-fingered hand, ends in 

 the two-fingered, or, as it is erroneously called, 

 "cloven hoof," of the ruminants. Similar speciali- 

 zations of the toes of the hinder extremity give us 

 an impression of "sameness in diversity" such as we 

 have never received before; an impression to be 

 intensified by a study of the collection of mamma- 

 lian teeth illustrating the general characters of their 

 form, the different tissues of which they are com- 

 posed, their development and succession and princi- 

 pal modifications, according to their various uses for 

 food or defence. 



The second alcove contains in the only case yet 

 occupied, illustrations of the outer mammalian cov- 

 ering or integument, and its modifications into webs 

 betiseen the fingers of swimming and flying animals, 

 into the true bony plates of the armadillos, the true 

 scales of the pangolins; into various forms of hair, 

 including bristles and spines ; nails, claws, or hoofs ; 

 the nasal horns of the rhinoceros, the horns of oxen, 

 goats, and antelopes, and the antlers of deer. Other 

 systems of organs belonging to the class will be 

 placed in this alcove when the specimens desired 

 shall be forthcoming. 



In alcove number three we may study the princi- 

 pal facts in the osteology of birds, proceeding, as in 

 the case of the mammals, from a general idea to 

 particular modifications. A complete skeleton of 

 an eagle, with the bones separated and named ; and 

 mounted skeletons of the ostrich, penguin, pelican, 

 vulture, fowl, etc., show the chief specializations of 

 the skeleton, the correspondence of the bones being 

 readily traced by means of the labels attached to 

 them, even in such extreme examples as those of 

 the wing bones of the apteryx and the frigate bird. 

 The under surface of the skulls of various birds is 

 shown, with the different bones colored, to indicate 

 their limits and relations. There are series of spec- 

 imens to illustrate the different types of sternum ; 

 the modifications of wings and feet, and external 

 characters, such as bills or beaks, feathers and tails. 

 The internal organs and circulatory system are 

 shown, either by prepared specimens or colored 

 casts, and the nature of the bones of birds is demon- 

 strated by sections displaying the large cavities 

 within. 



The most important points in the structure of 

 reptiles and fishes are to be represented in alcoves 

 four and five on this west side of the hall. Magnifi- 

 cent skeletons of the great blue shark (Carcharodoti 

 rondeletii) and of the Torpedo Fairchildi are already 

 in place, with the names affixed to their multitudi- 

 nous bones. There is also an interesting series of 

 specimens illustrating the integumentary system 

 and its special modifications. 



On the east side of the hall two alcoves are devoted 

 to the invertebrates, whose parts, judging from what 

 is already exhibited, are to be generally and specially 

 demonstrated by diagrams, specimens, and wax 



models. In like manner will the morphology of the 

 vegetable kingdom be illustrated in the remaining 

 three alcoves, where already fine preparations may 

 be found to make clear the nature of fungi, lichens, 

 and alga;, and the inflorescence — male and female — 

 of the phitnogams. 



The floor of the hall is destined for cases to throw 

 light on general laws or points of interest in natural 

 history. The difficulty of defining and limiting the 

 term "species," so constantly used in biology, is 

 shown by two examples of "dimorphism," or the 

 occurrence of a single species in nature under two 

 different outward garbs. One group exhibits two 

 forms of crows, so unlike that one would pronounce 

 them separate species ; one from the extreme east of 

 Siberia, and the other from Scandinavia. Yet that 

 they are of the same species is shown by a number 

 of specimens collected by Mr. Seebohm in the valley 

 of the Yenesay, near the Arctic Circle, — one of the 

 spots where the Asiatic crows have met colonies of 

 the Scandinavian and united with them, producino- 

 offspring of various intermediate conditions of col- 

 oring, from the complete black of the one to the 

 pure gray of the other. Goldfinches from the neigh- 

 borhood of the same river show a similar series of 

 transitions between the English form, with black 

 crown and nape and little white on the wings, and 

 the Himalayan, slightly larger, more brightly col- 

 ored, with more white on the wings and no black on 

 the head. Variation in a state of domestication is 

 illustrated by examples of the principal breeds of 

 domestic pigeons and of the wild rock dove 

 {Columha liria), from which they have all been 

 derived by careful (artificial) selection. 



in preparing to leave this central hall for some of 

 the galleries of systematically arranged specimens 

 opening from it, we have to remember that there 

 are in this building two distinct zoological and 

 botanical collections ; one representing animals and 

 plants from the earliest dawn of life to close upon 

 the present time, and the Other containing only 

 those living at the particular period in which we 

 dwell. These two collections, moreover, being sub- 

 divided into ». series of specimens for exhibition, 

 and a reserve series for the use of students, it is 

 clear that the Museum contains material enough to 

 occupy us for years rather than days. If, instead of 

 days, we have but hours at our disposal, we can 

 hope to see only a small part even of the exhibited 

 series. 



The groups of British birds and their nests will 

 interest us greatly, the surroundings being in every 

 case carefully executed reproductions of those that 

 were present round each individual nest. When it 

 has been possible, the actual rocks, trees, or grass 

 have been preserved, and where these were perisha- 

 ble, accurate models have been made from nature. 

 Sea-gulls, hung by wire from the top of a case, 

 hover over their nests of downy, fluffy young. The 

 ptarmigan stands by his nest on the very rock on 

 which he built it, covered with Alpine azalia, scarlet 

 lichen cups, heather, and alchemella, now so faith- 

 fully represented in wax that he would be sorely 

 beset to distinguish them from their living originals. 

 The nest of the common pheasant is almost hidden 

 in primroses and blue-bells, that of the land-rail 

 among clover and yellow vetchling, and the ledges 

 of the cliffs over which the herring-gull hovers are 

 covered with close turf and sea-pink. 



Leaving galleries of coral, fish, insects, reptiles, 

 star-fish, shells, and cetacean* unvisited, we pass 

 over to the east wing, merely to walk rapidiv 

 through the large exhibit of fossil mammalia. Long 

 could we linger among the skeletons ol colossal 

 animals; the half-fossilized remains of man, and the 

 co-occupants of his caves ; the magnificent collection 

 of the remains of proboscidea, and the relics of 



