lO 



NATURE 



[Afay 6, 1880 



■ could ascertain the names of the writers. In this simple 

 manner, by almost a single stroke, Mr. Poole has called a mass 

 of statistical data into existence, more thorough and complete 

 than could perhaps have been procured in any other way. I 

 have spent many iiours in analysing the answers, and find that 

 they bear generally the marks of painstaking and veracity ; they 

 have already led me to results which appear important, but of 

 which this is not the time to speak. 



The observation I desire to make is that as every hospital 

 falfils two purposes, the primary one of relieving the sick, and 

 the secondary one of advancing patliology, so every school might 

 be made not only to fulfil the primary purpose of educating boys, 

 but also that of advancing many branches of anthropology. 

 The object of schools should be not only to educate, but also to 

 promote directly and indirectly the science of education. 



It is astonishing how little has 1 cen dene by the schoolmasters 

 of our great public schools in this direction, notwithstanding their 

 enviable opportunities. I know absolutely of no work written 

 by one of them in which his experiences are classified in the 

 same scientific spirit as hospital cases are by a physician, or as 

 other facts are by the scientific man in whose special line of 

 inquiry they lie. Vet the routine of school work is a daily course 

 of examination. There, if anywhere, the art of putting ques- 

 tions and the practice of answering them is developed to its 

 highest known perfection. In m o'her place are persons so 

 incessantly and for so long a time under close inspection. 

 Nowhere else are the conditions of antecedents, age, and pre-ent 

 occupation so alike as in the boys of the same form. Schools 

 are almost ideally perfect places for statistical inquiries. If a 

 census on other subjects such as this that has been made by Mr. 

 Poole, w as carried out, say once a term, or even once a year, at 

 each great pulilic school, what a rich statistical output we should 

 annually witne.-s. Or again, if a schoolmaster were now and 

 then found capable and willing to codify in a scientific manner 

 his large experiences of boys, to compare their various moral and 

 intellectual qualities, to classify their natural temperaments, and 

 generally to describe them as a naturalist would describe the 

 launa of some new land, what excellent psychological work 

 might be accomplished ! But all these great opportunities lie 

 neglected. The masters come and go, their experiences are lost, 

 or almost so, and the incidents on v, hich they were founded are 

 forgotten, instead of being stored and rendered accessible to 

 their successors ; thus our great schools are like mediaival hos- 

 pitals, where cae-taking was unknown, where pathological col- 

 lections were never dreamt of, and where in consequence the art 

 of healing m.ade slow and uncertain advance. 



Some schoolmaster may put the inquiry. What are the subjects 

 fitted for investigation in schools? I can only reply. Take any 

 book that bears on psychology, select any subject concerning the 

 intellect, emotions, or senses in which you may feel an intere-t ; 

 think how a knowledge of it might best be advanced either by 

 statistical questioning or by .any other kind of observation, consult 

 with others, plan carefully a mode of procedure that shall be as 

 simple as the case admits, then take the inquiry in hand and 

 carry it through. Francis Galton 



Museum Conference 

 Presuming that the oliject of a museum is twofold, vi;., to 

 instruct the general i-ublic through tlie eye and to serve as a 

 repository of material by means of which specialists can carr,- 

 on their scientific and historical researches, it must be obvious to 

 every thoughtful observer how inadequate the mack.inery gener- 

 ally is to the end in view. A visitor, let us suppose, to the 

 zoolo;;ical depaitment of a museum, observes a number of birds 

 bearing a general family likeness, and a name under each specimen. 

 Having no pictorial clue to the habits, native country, or specific 

 distinctions of the numerous specimens, no verbal description 

 before him, and no intelligent curator on the spot to give the 

 information lequired, he goes away with a hazy impression of 

 what he has seen, and too often with a headache. Surely there 

 is room for improvement in the direction of the amount of infor- 

 mation that could be conveyed by proper adjuncts to the specimens, 

 and by grouping them according to the countries to which they 

 belong, &c. ? Many a missir nary going abroad would gladly learn 

 something of the economical and medicinal products of the country 

 to w hich he i- going ; but in a museum in which vegetable products 

 are grouped according to their natural orders his difficulties are 

 increased tenfold. 1 can imagine no better means of improving 

 the character of museums and of increa'^ing their u-efulness than 



a conference of curators to exchange ideas and the results of 

 their experience. With regard to the use of musems by those 

 seeking special information, the circumstances are very different 

 in large cities and in small towns. In cities, as a rule, the 

 curator naturally I ecomes in time the depository of a large 

 amount of special information, for which there is such a demand 

 that time is rarely left him for the manual labour and supervision 

 which the keeping of a museum in good order involves. In this 

 case it is assistance that is required rather than increase of 

 salary, although a curator should in my opinion be so well paid 

 that he need not be obliged to resort to literary work to eke out 

 a living. 



In provincial towns the case is somewhat different. The 

 curator has less demand made upon his time by specialists, bat 

 he needs to be well acquainted with almost every branch of art 

 and natural histoiy, and is often expected to be able to lecture 

 upon any .subject that can at all be included within the range of 

 objects in the museum. Such extensive knowledge is rarely to 

 be found concentrated in one person, and consequently one 

 branch of natural history is often pursued to the exclusion of 

 others, as of arts and antiquities, or fue versa ; and it is little 

 consolation to the naturalist who has done good local work to 

 think that if his collection be left to the local museum it may . 

 become devoured by insects or neglected by a subsequent cm-ator 

 who takes little or n:i interest in that particular branch. 



A monthly or quarterly publication would form an excellent 

 means of communication for the exchange of duplicates, the dis- 

 tribution to suitable quarters of the productions of foreign 

 countries for purposes of investigation, for the record of im- 

 provements in manipulation or exhibition, and for the results of 

 experience in various directions. Such a publication, if circulated 

 abroad, might be made the means of incalculable benefit to trade 

 by suggesting uses for little known native productions and by 

 bringing residents abroad in communication with those at home 

 who could direct them how best to utilise the resources of newly- 

 explored districts. 



I see no reason also why museum^, especially those of a 

 technical character, should not be made in some degree self- 

 supportimj, by charging a small admission fee to visitors and 

 a fixed fee for the identification of objects used or to be 

 used in trade. I trust the subject of a museum conference will 

 be well ventilated in your columns, and that the liberal offer of 

 the Council of the Society of Arts will soon be turned to account 

 by a preliminary meeting in the rooms of that Society. I would 

 suggest that those W'ho are able and willing to form an executive 

 committee should forward their names at once to Mr. Paton, who 

 will then be in a position to carry out a scheme which cannot 

 fail to produce a beneficial effect upon the education of the nation 

 at large. E. M. Holmes 



Ural Crayfish 



Referring to the notice in Nature, vol. xxi. p. 454, of M. 

 Malakhoff's memoir on Ural Crayfish, you will perhaps allow 

 me, a resident among the foot-hills of the South-Western Urals, 

 space for a few words. Aslaais Icflodactylus is found in most of 

 the streams here, in some abundantly. The variety is that in 

 which the cephalo-thorax and chelco are studded with tubercles, 

 and is accurately represented in Prof. E. Ray Lankester's Fig. 2, 

 in Nature, vol. xxi. p. 354. I have one before me at the 

 present moment from a tributary of the River Bielaia, measuring 

 five inches in length, and this is the average size. I have never 

 seen the mountain variety mentioned in M. Malakhoff's paper. 

 His remark that "in the Ural the natives call the freshwater 

 Unio Rak {Eci\i-issc) and the true crayfish Rak-ryba (PEcrciisse 

 foissoii) " does not apply to this district, for hei e the latter is called 

 simply " ,-ak " and the unio " rakovitza '' and " rakovina " indif- 

 ferently, general terms for a mullusc and its shell. Various 

 opinions exist in reference to the quality of the flesh. For my 

 own part I find it extremely insipid, and I believe any English- 

 man eating it for the first time would be of the same opinion ; 

 but the inhabitants of the country, who have, of course, no 

 opportunity of tasting fresh marine Crustacea, rather esteem the 

 flesh. Englishmen staying here a long time often grow to like 

 it in default of anything better, till I verily believe in some cases 

 they leave the country praising it as a delicacy. This may be 

 one of the ways in which the diverging opinions respecting its 

 quality have originated. W. H. Twelvetrees 



Voskresensky Zavod, near Orenburg, Russia, 

 March 27 (April 8) 



