juny 15; 1975] 
NATURE 
549 

written by the director of the observatory, Prof. Per- 
cival Lowell and Mr. E. C. Slipher respectively. The 
illustrations are a distinguishing feature of both com- 
munications; they show the great 24-in. refracting tele- 
scope and the dome in which it is housed ; comparison 
spectra of the moon and Mars demonstrate the differ- 
ence in darkness of the water-vapour band indicating 
the presence of water vapour in the atmosphere of 
Mars. Photographs of the planets Saturn and Jupiter 
give one an idea of the great advances made in record- 
ing their surface features and satellite phenomena, 
while the spectrum of the latter planet affords a means 
of measuring the speed of rotation by noting the slant 
of the lines. Photographs of nebula and comet 1910a 
‘are included among other illustrations. 

THE MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION. 
lec ceatons as to individuals there comes a time 
of trial, when their worth to the world is tested. 
The Museums Association, like other bodies, had to 
be proved by this year of war, and if it hesitated fully 
to grasp the great occasion, yet it rose not ignobly 
towards it. Devoted to the arts and studies of peace, 
it would fain have withdrawn awhile from the 
turbulence, had not a fortunate rule insisted on at 
least a general business meeting. Still wishing to be 
inconspicuous, it chose London as its place of assembly 
on July 7-8, proposing to do little more than prolong 
the official life of its officers and council who, it was 
thought, had been robbed of their opportunities by the 
war. Happily for the association, some wider 
imaginations took a stronger line, and determined to 
show that the association and its constituent museums 
could now serve the nation better than ever. Happily, 
too, the hospitality of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
gracefully offered by the Board of Education through 
Sir Cecil Smith, dragged the conference from its self- 
sought obscurity. 
At the outset the dominant note was struck by Dr. 
Bather (Natural History Museum), Mr. Butterfield 
(Hastings), and Mr. G. W. Prothero (Central Com- 
mittee for National Patriotic Organisations). Both 
now and for a long future the situation is changed, 
and museums, they said, must meet it. Working by 
their special methods, they can stimulate enthusiasm, 
ward off discouragement, teach people how to help 
the forces at sea and in the field, how to fight disease 
and its causes, how to economise with profit to the 
nation as well as to themselves, how to supplement 
our food-supply; and, looking further ahead, they can 
indicate within the Empire sources of supply for our 
industries, can furnish manufacturers with foreign 
models, and, above all, can help in the physical and 
mental upbringing of the coming generation, to whom 
they must hand on undimmed the lamp of peaceful 
learning. 
The sort of exhibits by which this important work 
might be accomplished are sketched in an editorial 
already published in the Museums Journal for July. 
Many of them were dealt with in more detail by 
speakers in the discussion (especially Messrs. Howarth, 
of Sheffield, Bolton, of Bristol, Woolnough, of 
Ipswich, Deas, of Sunderland, and. Williamson, of 
Derby), or formed the subject of separate papers. Thus 
Dr. Grant Ogilvie (Science Museum) showed how the 
conditions of life and the earning powers of the com- 
munity might be improved by a carefully thought- 
out scheme of exhibits linking up the fundamental 
principles of science and the elementary materials of 
art with the industries of each locality; the visitor is 
more interested in things connected with his daily 
NO. 2385, VOL. 95] 


activities, and the museum sends him back with more 
intelligent interest in those activities. On the true 
scientific foundation must be based appropriateness of 
design, carried out by sound workmanship; and so 
Mr. H. H. Peach, of the Leicester Art School, ex- 
pounded the objects of the newly-formed Design and 
Industries Association, and indicated the help that the 
museum might best give in its attempt to organise 
the artistic faculty in union with the technical ability 
and commercial enterprise of the nation. 
As regards industries, museums have also their own 
interests to serve; glass jars and other apparatus, 
metal trays and cases, formalin and various reagents, 
are among the museum material hitherto obtained 
chiefly from Germany, owing to the inability or un- 
willingness of British manufacturers to meet the de- 
mands of curators. A committee was appointed to 
approach manufacturers with a statement of probable 
requirements and to invite tenders. We trust that this 
committee will consult with those committees of the 
British Science Guild which are doing similar work 
(Nature, July 8, p. 520). 
But dearth of men will be a greater danger than 
dearth of material, and, as was forcibly pleaded by 
Nurse Prior, museums might well follow the example 
of Leicester, and devote a section to children’s welfare, 
showing by concrete examples the right and the wrong 
ways of nursing, feeding, and clothing babies. 
And then these children will have to be educated, a 
task in which the museum will take no small share. 
Of all peaceful activities the education of the young 
is the one that most needs to be kept going, and day 
by day we realise afresh that the thing seen is more 
forcible than the thing heard. 
It was thus most fitting that the conference should 
conclude with a discussion between museum curators 
and representatives of the Education Section of the 
British Association. The case of the educationists was 
presented in a profound yet lucid address by Prof. 
Green, of Sheffield, who urged the claims of the chil- 
dren and other uninstructed visitors. For them are 
not wanted the analysis and system of the specialist, 
but a free synthetic treatment that shall bring each 
object into relation with the outer world, and par- 
ticularly that world which is known to the child. The 
difficulty raised by Mr. Madeley, that each visitor 
brings a different world of his own, shows that labels 
are insufficient to give the synthesis needed for each 
case. We must have recourse to the human inter- 
preter, and the question is—in what form? The best 
interpreter ought to be the trained teacher already 
familiar with the child’s mind and world; but, un- 
fortunately, the elementary-school teacher must him- 
self be taught how to use a museum. Two means of 
effecting this were suggested: Prof. Green would pre- 
sent the teachers with a printed guide, showing them 
how to utilise the exhibits. Mr. Spurley Hey, director 
of education for Manchester, had selected the most 
suitable teachers and handed them over to the directors 
of museums to be trained as they thought best for the 
purpose of taking pupils round. This might partly 
meet the financial difficulties, which were emphasised 
by Messrs. Bolton and Woolnough. Modes of co- 
operation between museums and teaching institutions 
of higher rank were suggested by Dr. Bather, and 
other solid contributions to the discussion were being 
made by speakers of varied experience, when the 
meeting was brought to an abrupt conclusion. ; 
During its first quarter of a century this association 
has, we gather, proved of service to its members; if 
now they will act up to the ideals set before them 
at this twenty-sixth annual meeting, it should prove 
of no less service to the nation. 
