April IS, 1886] 



NATURE 



565 



Lord Mayor is entirely to be congratulated on this new 

 departure. 



On Monday last the galleries in the west wing of the British 

 Museum, hitherto occupied by natural history objects which have 

 been removed to South Kensington, were thrown open to the 

 public. Besides a rare collection of objects of Oriental art, 

 sacred and profane, the galleries are now the home of the ethno- 

 graphical collections belonging to the British Museum, including 

 the famous Christy Collection presented by the trustees to the 

 nation. When Mr. Christy died in 1865 he left his prehistoric 

 and ethnographical collections, together with a sum of money, 

 to four trustees, with power to dispose of them to any existing 

 institution, or to create an institution for them if this course 

 should prove desirable. One portion of the collections had been 

 arranged prior to Mr. Christy's death by Mr. Steinhauer of 

 Copenhagen, and the trustees decided on offering this to the 

 British Museum, together with a selection of objects of the same 

 kind made from the remainder of the collections. This offer 

 was accepted in 1866, bul, owing to the crowded state of the 

 National Collection, a temporary place of deposit was taken at 

 103, Victoria Street, formerly occupied by Mr. Christy. Here 

 the scattered collections were brought together and incorporated 

 with that arranged by Mr. Steinhauer ; various additions were 

 made from time to time during the past twenty years, either by 

 presentation, or by purchase from the income arising from the 

 sum left by Mr. Christy for the purpose of maintaining the col- 

 lection. The ethnographical portion has now been removed to 

 the British Museum, and is incorporated with the collections 

 previously in the Museum. One provision of the gift by the 

 trustees to the nation was that the collection should be actually 

 placed in the British Museum, and exhibited there, and as this 

 condition was not fulfilled until Monday last, it Ibllows that it 

 was only on and from that day that the Christy Ethnographical 

 Collection became the national property. The prehistoric col- 

 lection will, in like manner, be incorporated with the pre- 

 historic collections already in the British Museum, and will 

 shortly be arranged in the room between the top of the staircase 

 and the ethnographical collection. 



Of the new galleries and their contents it would be impossible 

 to speak adequately here. They do not yield their secret in the 

 course of a few cursory visits ; each one of the many sections is 

 a study in itself, and will engage the attention of the ethnologist 

 and of the student of Cu'twgcschichien. The first room con- 

 tains, on the left, the arms and armour of the civilised nations of 

 Asia, from the Burgess, Meyrick, and Henderson collections, 

 while the other side is occupied by the weapons and implements 

 of the less civilised or barbarous Asiatic peoples ; these come 

 from Borneo, the Nicobars, Ceylon, theKhonds of Orissa, tribes 

 inhabiting parts of Burmah and Northern Siam, the Nagas of 

 Assam, the Ainos, and the tribes of Northern Asia. The second 

 room is occupied by the utensils, weapons, implements, dress, 

 &c., of Java, Sumatra, Australia, and New Guinea on the left; 

 and on the right by those of Borneo, the Asiatic islands, Micro- 

 nesia, and New Zealand. The last is an excellent collection, and 

 one which it would be now very difficult, if not impossible, to 

 collect again. The third room is devoted to the Pacific islands, to 

 New Ireland, New Britain, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, the Harvey, 

 Society, Friendly, Samoan, and Savage Islands. The centre of this 

 room is occupied by two magnificent specimens of the canoes of 

 the Solomon islanders. This room also contains the Sandwich 

 Islands collection, which is now absolutely priceless, for it could 

 never again be obtained. The fourth room is nearly wholly 

 devoted to .'\frica, but the American collection (which appears 

 to be greatly cramped for space) overflows into it. On the left 

 we have South and West Africa represented, and North 

 America ; on the right we have the Marquesas and Easter 

 Island, Madagascar, Eastern Central Africa, Abyssinia, North 



Africa, and Arctic America. The fifth and last room is pos- 

 sibly the most interesting and valuable of all. It is devoted to 

 America, We commence on the left with the Ancient West 

 Indies, which are mainly represented by stone implements ; this 

 is succeeded by a wonderful collection representing Ancient 

 Mexico. Here also stone implements and pottery (especially 

 the latter) abound ; then come Central America and New 

 Granada, and finally an invaluable collection representing the 

 Inca civilisation of Ancient Peru. On the right of this room 

 the collections from Modern Mexico, North-Western and Arctic 

 America are placed. In this abounding wealth of ethnological 

 objects it is difficult to specify one section which attracts the eye 

 more than another. Each visitor, accordmg to his tastes and 

 course of study, will select for hi uself, but, as we have already 

 suggested, the New Zealand, Sandwich Island, Ancient West 

 Indian, Ancient Peruvian, and Ancient Mexican collections are 

 probably unrivalled elsewhere in the world. When the pre- 

 historic collections shall have been arranged, the British 

 Museum will have at last materials for the illustration of the 

 history of mankind worthy of the British nation. 



We understand that Mr. John Smith, Curator of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, has, in consequence of ill-health, resigned his 

 appointment, which he has held for a period of twenty-two 

 years. 



A STRONGLY supported memorial has been presented to the 

 Lord President of the Council, urging the desirability of esta- 

 blishing a Medical Faculty and an Engineering School at Cardiff, 

 in connection with the University College of South Wales. 

 Forcible reasons are given for the establishment of the former 

 in so thickly populated a region ; and as several of the subjects 

 required for medical students are already taught at Cardiff, it 

 need not be difficult to supplement them, so as at least to carry 

 medical studies to all but the final stage for the medical de- 

 gree. As to an Engineering School, it is pointed out — that 

 the engineering and colliery interests in the district are second 

 to none in the world, while the rapidity of their growth has 

 been unparalleled in our national history ; that the urgent need 

 for the establishment of a Faculty of Engineering in connection 

 with the University College of South Wales and Monmouth- 

 shire is shown by the fact that no less than 90,000 skilled work- 

 men are employed in the vast collieries, and in the iron, steel, 

 tin, copper, chemical, and general engineering works of the 

 district ; that tho,ie who direct and manage the operations of 

 these large industries (at a low estimate in number more than 

 4000 persons) must at present, in order to obtain a technical 

 training, proceed to distant parts of the United Kingdom or to 

 the Continent ; so that for the great bulk of the people there 

 are insuperable difficulties in the way of that higher education 

 which is becoming more and more necessary in the face of the 

 growing competition with Continental nations, and the greater 

 advantages in the way of technical education offered by Ger- 

 many, France, and other countries. It is to be hoped that 

 Government will grant the prayer of the petition, and provide 

 the funds necessary to establish the necessary Chairs. 



It is intended to hold a Photographic Exhibition in Glasgow, 

 in the Corporation Galleries of Art, during July, .Vugust, 

 and September, 18S6. The E.\hibition will comprise : — 

 (I.) Illustrations of the history of photography, early daguerreo- 

 types, calotypes, &c. ; (II.) photographic instruments, materials 

 and appliances, lenses, cameras, chemicals, &c. ; (III.) illustra- 

 tions of modern processes in photography ; (IV. ) applications of 

 photography: portraiture, landscape photographs, architecture, 

 reproductions of pictures, drawings, etchings, and engravings, 

 photolithographs, photogravures, copying plans, maps, mechanical 

 drawings, illustration of books, decoration of glass, pottery, &c. , 

 astronomy, meteorology, microscopy, &c. The object of the Kxhi- 



