12 NATURE 
[May 4, 1899 
Mines, the Normal School, the Polytechnic, the School 
of Fine Arts, the Pasteur Institute, the Central School 
and others, all engaged in a greater or less degree in 
imparting and advancing scientific knowledge, it will be 
seen that the provision for higher technical instruction in 
Paris is of the most satisfactory kind. 
A. T. SIMMONS. 
THE EXHIBITION OF RECENT ACQUISI- 
TIONS AT THE NATURAL AISTORY 
MUSEUM. 
ike has already become recognised that collections of 
objects intended to be exhibited to the general 
public should be presented in such a way as to enable 
the visitor to obtain some systematised information. 
This one takes to be the so-called educational side of 
the question. Museum curators, however, although by 
necessity extremely conservative, are beginning to find 
themselves ina position not very different from that of the 
popular lecturer or writer of the day. Unless these have 
something new to offer, be it only the method, so to 
speak, of marketing their wares, they will fail to arrest 
the attention which, when once directed in the sought- 
for way, may never again be lost. 
The curator, it must be pointed out, is in a worse 
plight than the others, for the lecturer's audience is a 
varying one, and the writer can change his public ; while 
the museum, as one is accustomed to it, is a fixture. 
Again, whereas the hearing of a lecture or enjoyment of 
an article usually presupposes some amount of ex- 
penditure upon the part of the hearer or reader, on the 
other hand most museums are free; and there is a good 
deal of truth in the saying that what is paid for is 
appreciated more than that which is had for nothing. 
A little living interest must always be an advantage to 
a museum, and there seems some likelihood that Prof. 
Ray Lankester’s infusing of some into the natural history 
side of the British Museum may mark the beginning of 
a new era there. : 
Possibly the new departure may be of more direct value 
to the general public, who only pays for the Museum, 
than to the specialists who use the building ; but let us 
consider the matter in detail. 
The arched recesses opening out of the entrance hall 
have hitherto been assigned to the index collections. 
These were intended as a biological introduction to the 
main groups represented in detail in the galleries, but 
they have never been absolutely completed. Recently, 
indeed, some of the specimens have been taken away, 
possibly to reappear in a more suitable position at the 
head of the series they elucidate. More to the point 
is the fact, that their place in the last alcove but one on 
the right-hand side is now taken by “specimens recently 
acquired,” 
The collection which first arrests attention illustrates 
the remarkable molluscan fauna of Lake Tanganyika. 
There are three series of shells, two of which show the 
freshwater molluscs of the general type which inhabit 
the African lakes, as illustrated by representatives from 
Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika. The third consists of 
shells from the latter piece of water, which belong to the 
series called halolimnic, by Mr. J. E. S. Moore, who has 
done so much to add to our knowledge of the Tan- 
ganyikan fauna, and who has started this month upon a 
second expedition to the Great Lakes of Africa. This 
naturalist has shown that the shells in question are 
almost identical with well-known Jurassic forms, and the 
chief interest surrounding this exhibit is that in many 
<ases, side by side with the examples collected by Mr. 
Moore, are their fossil representatives. This reminds 
one forcibly of the arbitrary line drawn in _ the 
arrangement of the Museum between fossil and recent 
NO. 1540, VOL. 60] 
genera ; but this by the way. As instances of the pairs 
of similar species might be quoted : 
Tanganyika. 
Jurassic. 
Chytra kirkit. 
Onustus ornatissimus, 
Burton Bradstock. 
Amberleya orbignyana, 
near Yeovil. 
Purpurina bellona, 
Bradford Abbas. 
Littorina dorsetensts, 
near Yeovil. 
Certithtum subscalartforme,. 
Bradford Abbas. 
Possibly the most striking exhibit is the collection 
of siliceous hexactinellid sponges dredged from Saguma 
Bay in Japan, and purchased by the Museum: many 
types and some of the finest examples yet known are 
among the number. They come from depths varying 
from 80 to 300 fathoms, and mention might be made 
of the fine Luflectella imperialis and Rhabdocalyptus 
victor, while the specimen of Chaunoplectella cavernosa 
is particularly beautiful. 
The rare birds’ skins presented by Dr. Moreno, the 
director of the Museum of La Plata, are as they were re- 
ceived. Indeed, itis rather agreeable to see exhibited in 
the Museum something which is not absolutely spick and 
span. An albino song-thrush from Argyll, presented by 
Colonel Edward Malcolm, finds a place by an example of 
one of the four recent species of Plewrotomaria, viz. 
berichit, all very rare and valuable, and the only living 
representatives of a genus once a thousand strong. The 
particular specimen contained the soft parts, and we are 
looking forward to an interesting paper based upon them 
from Mr. Martin Woodward, who gave a description 
of the radula to the Malacological Society the other day. 
A series of models illustrating the development of the 
chick within the egg attracted much attention on Easter 
Monday, as appertaining to something more or less 
familiar to the crowds whose acquaintance with oranges 
was even closer, judging from the heaps of peel not 
wholly left outside the building. F 
A formidable array of bottles contains a large collec- 
tion of crustaceans exchanged with the Paris Museum, 
and chiefly obtained during the Zalésman and Travazt- 
leur expeditions. Following close up, there is a 
second display of members of the same class from 
the Indian Museum. Lastly, must be mentioned 
several series of fish: one collected by Mr. Moore in 
the same lake as the shells; another representing a 
selection of the remarkable forms inhabiting the River 
Congo, presented by the Secretary of State for the Congo 
Free State, and recently described by Mr. G. A. 
Boulenger, with annals of the museum belonging to that 
republic. Many peculiarities of structure are to be met 
with; for instance, the curved snouts of the species 
belonging to the genus Gvathonemus, from which they 
take such names as curvirostratus elephas and rhyn- 
cophorus. he large teeth, too, of Hydrocyon goliath 
are most striking, fitting as they do between a pair of 
those in the opposite jaw, and coming to lie in deep 
grooves beyond their bases. 
Two specimens of Lefidosiren paradoxa, sent by Mr. 
Graham Kerr from Paraguayan Chaco, complete the 
present list of the new exhibits. 
Neglecting the actualities and possibilities of the 
Museum as a centre for research, it is primarily a store- 
house in which everything, so far as space allows, is 
exhibited ; a fact that enables the collector to name his 
specimens without unduly taking up the time of the staff. 
Secondly, the educational idea has been added to, but 
not combined with, this ; while the popular interest will 
bear development, and it remains for the new director to 
work the various lines of usefulness into a well-balanced 
and harmonious whole. WILFRED MARK WEBB. 
Bathanalia irridescens. 
Pseudomelania damon. 
Limnotrochus thomson?. 
Melania admirabilis. 
