556 
NAPRORE 
[OcroBER 5, 1899 
excellent collections of ethnology, while at the College of 
Surgeons and the Natural History Museum there are illustrations 
of physical anthropology in great quantity. Whatever might be 
the result if all these were brought together, there can be no 
question that no one of them meets the requirements of the 
time. Here also there isa want of a system that shall at once 
be worthy of our Empire and so devised as to serve the ends 
of the student. Where, if not in England, should be found 
the completest collections of all the races of the Empire? It 
must be admitted, however, not only that we have no national 
collection of the kind, but that other nations are ahead of us in 
this matter. This could be readily understood if their sources 
of supply were at all comparable to ours. But this is, of course, 
very far from being the case. The sources are ours in great 
part, and if we stand inactive it is not unlikely that some will 
be exhausted when we do come to draw upon them. It is, 
perhaps, better to give here a case in point rather than to rely 
on general statements. In the summer of last year I arranged, 
with the approval of the Trustees, that Mr. Dalton, one of the 
officers of my department, should make a tour of inspection of 
the ethnographical museums of Germany, with a definite object 
in view, but at the same time that he should make a general 
survey of their system and resources as compared with our own. 
The report which he drew up on his return was printed and has 
recently been communicated to the newspapers ; it is therefore 
not necessary to allude to it now, except to quote one instance 
confirming my statement that it is to a great extent from our 
Colonies that material is being drawn. Mr. Dalton says: 
“On a moderate estimate the Berlin collections are six or seven 
times as extensive as ours. To mention a single point, the 
British province of Assam is represented in Berlin by a whole 
room and in London by a single case.” But even this, forcible 
though it is, does not adequately represent the vast difference 
between the material at the disposal of the two countries. For 
it is the habit of the collectors for the German museums to 
procure duplicates or triplicates of every object, for the purposes 
of exchange or study. It is thus not unlikely that the whole 
room referred to represents only a part of the Berlin collection 
from the British province of Assam. In making these ob- 
servations, I should be sorry if it were thought that I wish to 
advocate a dog-in-the-manger policy, or that I consider it 
either desirable or politic to place any restriction upon scientific 
work in our Colonial possessions, even if such restrictions 
were possible. I would prefer to look at the matter from an 
entirely different point of view. If the German people, who are 
admittedly practical and business-like, think it worth while, with 
their limited Colonies, to spend so much time and money on the 
establishment of a royal museum of ethnography, how much 
more is it our duty to establish and maintain one, and ona scale 
that shall bear some relation to the magnitude of our Empire. 
The value of such museums is by no means confined to the 
scientific inquirer, but they may equally be made to serve the 
purpose of the trader and the public at large. 
How can we best obtain such a museum ? That is the question 
that we have to answer. It is scarcely profitable to expect that 
the Government will be stirred to emulation by the description 
of the size and resources of the Museum fiir Volkerkunde in 
Berlin. In the British Museum there is at the present time 
only the most limited accommodation even for the collections 
already housed there, and I am well aware that these form a 
very inadequate representation of the subject. 
It may be thought that the solution of this difficulty is easy. 
It is well known that the Government has purchased the rest of 
the block of land on which the British Museum stands, and it 
may seem that such a liberal extension as this will form should 
be enough for, at any rate, a generation or two, and that a little 
additional building would meet immediate wants, and enable 
the collections, now so painfully crowded, to be set out in an 
instructive and interesting way. I admit that if the whole of 
the contemplated buildings were at this moment complete, and 
at least double as much space given to the ethnographical col- 
lections as they occupy at present, the difficulty would be much 
simplified. The collections could at any rate be then displayed 
far more worthily and usefully. Even this, however, would 
hardly meet the case, even if there were a certainty of the 
buildings being immediately begun. Such works as these, how- 
ever, can only be executed in sections during the course of each 
financial year. Thus, even if a Chancellor of the Exchequer 
could be found to fall in entirely with the views of the Trustees, 
it would still be an appreciable number of years before the com- 
NO. 1562, VOL. 60] 
pletion of the entire range of galleries that is contemplated. 
For this reason alone I do not look forward to obtaining 
the space that is even now urgently wanted for some 
time. Meanwhile the natural and legitimate increase of the 
collections at the rate of about 1 to 2 per cent. per annum 
still goes on, and the original difficulty of want of room would 
still face us, though in a lesser degree. This estimate of the 
rate of increase may seem a high one; but it should not be 
forgotten that the science is new, and that it is only within the 
last few years that such collections have been made on scientific 
lines, instead of being governed only by the attractive character 
or rarity of the object. The gaps that exist in such a series as 
that of the British Museum, made in great part on the old lines, 
are relatively more numerous than would be the case in museums 
more recently founded. Another reason, equally cogent, for 
allowing far more room than is required for the mere exhibition 
of the objects is that, in my judgment, ethnographical col- 
lections, to be of real value, need elucidation by means of 
models, maps and explanatory descriptions, to a far greater 
extent than do works of art, which to the trained eye speak 
eloquently for themselves. Such helps to understanding 
necessitate a considerable amount of space, though the outlay 
is fully justified by |their obvious utility, and in any general 
scheme of rearrangement of the national collection they should 
be considered an essential feature. 
There is yet another factor to be considered. It has been 
the fashion in this country to consider remains illustrating the 
physical characters of man to belong to natural history, while 
the productions of primitive and uncultured races generally find 
a place on the antiquarian side. Thus the skull of a Maor 
will be found at the natural history branch of the British 
Museum, while all the productions of the Maori are three miles 
distant in Bloomsbury. Such an arrangement can perhaps be 
defended on logical grounds, but its practical working leaves 
much to desire, and the arguments for a fusion of the two are 
undoubtedly strong. For instance, the student of one branch 
would be unlikely to study it alone without acquiring a know- 
ledge of the other, while the explorers to whom we look for 
collections usually give their attention to both classes of 
anthropological material. Here again, in such a case, there 
would be a call for still more space at Bloomsbury. 
If I may be permitted to add one more to the requirements 
of what should be an attainable ideal, I should like to say that 
courses of lectures on anthropology delivered in the same 
building that contains the collections would form a fitting crown 
to such a scheme for a really Imperial museum of anthropology 
as I have endeavoured to sketch. There is but one chair of 
anthropology in this country, and admirably as that is filled by 
Prof. Tylor, he would himself be the first to admit that there is 
ample room and ample material to justify the creation of a 
second professorship. 
It will be admitted that if my premisses are well founded the 
conclusion must necessarily be that we cannot look to the 
British Museum to furnish us eventually with the needful area 
and other resources for the installation of a worthy museum of 
anthropology. The difficulties are far too great for the Trustees 
to overcome, unless by the aid of such an exhibition of popular 
enthusiasm as I fear our branch of science cannot at present 
command. Failing the British Museum, which may be called 
the natural home of such a collection, we must look elsewhere 
for the necessary conditions, and I think they are to be found, 
although it is possible that, however favourable these conditions 
may seem from our point of view, difficulties may already exist 
or arise later. 
It is not the first time that a scheme has been thought out for 
the establishment of a museum or kindred institution which 
should represent our Colonies and India. In the year 1877 the 
Royal Colonial Institute made a vigorous effort in this direction, 
and, in combination with the various chambers of commerce 
throughout the country, advocated the building of an ‘‘ Imperial} 
Museum for the Colonies and India” on the Thames Embank- 
ment, with the then existing India Museum as a nucleus. The 
arguments then brought forward were in the main commercial, 
but they are, if anything, more forcible now than they were 
twenty years ago. The competition with foreign countries has 
become keener on the one hand, while the bonds between the 
Colonies and the parent country are notoriously closer and more 
firm than at any previous time. No moment could thus be 
more opportune than the present for the foundation of a really 
Imperial Institution to represent our vast Colonial Empire. 
