596 



NATURE 



\_Aiigusl 26, 18S0 



headache, and a general idea that the animal Idngdom is a 

 mighty maze without plan," I should be incUned to believe that 

 tliis state of bodily and mental prostration is the visitor's, and 

 not the curator's fault. The very fact that the exhibition series 

 is intended for a great variety of people, renders it necessary to 

 make a liberal selection of specimens ; and I simply follow the 

 principle of placing in it all those objects which, in my opinion, 

 the public can understand and appreciate, and which, therefore, 

 must contribute towards instruction. The public would receive 

 but an inadequate return for keeping up a national museum 

 if they were shown, for instance, a dozen so-called "types" of 

 the family of jDarrots or humming-birds ; they require a go3d 

 many more to see what nature can produce in splendour and 

 variation of colour, in grotesqueness of form ; or to learn that 

 whilst one of these groups of birds is spread over all the countries 

 of the tropical zone, the other is limited to a portion of a single 

 continent. To render such an exhibition tlioroughly useful, 

 two additional helps are required, viz., a complete system of 

 explanatory labels, and a popularly -written and well-illustrated 

 handbook, v\'hich should not only serve as a guide to the more 

 important and interesting specimens, but give a systematic out- 

 line of the all-wise plan which we endeavour to trace in God's 

 creation. 



There is one part of the museum which I intend to treat in a 

 different manner from the rest ; and that is the collection of 

 British animals. For the same reasons for which I have in a former 

 part of this address insisted on district faunas being fully repre- 

 sented in provincial museums, I consider a complete exhibition 

 of the British fauna to be one of the most important objects of 

 the National Museum. Its formation is, strange as it may appear 

 to many of you, slill a desideratum, and a task which will occu|iy 

 many years. It will not be easy (especially when you are in 

 danger of infringing an Act of Parliament) to form a complete 

 series of British birds, showing their change of plumage, their 

 young, their eggs, their mode of nidification ; it is a long work 

 to collect the larva; and chrysalides of insects, and to mount the 

 caterpillars with their food-plants ; and we shall require the 

 co-operation of many a member of the British Association when 

 we extend the collection to the marine animals and their me'a- 

 morphoses. But all the trouble, time, and labour spent will be 

 amply repaid by the direct benefits wliich all classes will derive 

 from sucli a complete British collection. 



My time is becoming short, and yet I find that I am far from 

 having completed the task I had set to myself. Therefore let 

 me briefly refer only to a few points which, of late, have much 

 agitated those who feel a direct or indirect interest in tlie progress 

 of the National Museum. In the first place, v\'e must feel deeply 

 concerned in everything relating to the conservation of the col 

 lections. If the objects could speak to you, as they do to those 

 familiar with their history, many of them would tell you of tlie 

 long hours of patient inquiry spent upon them ; many miglit 

 point with pride at the long pages written about them — alas I 

 not always with the even temper which renders the study of 

 natural science a delight and a blessing ; otliers would re- 

 mind you of having been objects^of your wonder when you saw 

 them depicted in scientific books, or in some household work ; 

 whilst not a few could tell you pitiful tales of the enthusiastic 

 collector who, braving the dangers of a foreign climate, sacrificed 

 health or life to his favourite pursuit. Collections thus obtained, 

 thus cherished, representing the labours of thousands of men, and 

 intended to instruct hundreds of thousands, are worth preserving, 

 displaying, and cultivating. No cost has been spared in housing 

 them : let no cost be spared in providing proper fittings to 

 receive them, a sufficient staff to look after them, and the 

 necessary books to study them. 



What we chiefly require in a well-constructed exhibition-case 

 is that it should be as perfectly dust-proof as possible, that it 

 should lock \\ell and easily, and yet that it should be of a light 

 structure. Every one who has gone through a gallery of our 

 old-fashioned museums must have noticed how much those 

 broad longitudinal and transverse bars of the wooden frame of the 

 front of a case interfere with tlie inspection of the objects behind 

 them, hiding a head here, a tail there, or cutting an animal into t« o 

 more or less unequal portions. Ill-constructed cases have brought 

 20ologicaI collections as much into bad repute as bad staffers ; 

 and if it be thought that a pound could be saved in the con- 

 traction of a case, that pound will probably entail a permanent 

 expense of a pound a year. Now all the requisites of a good 

 exhibition-case can be obtained by using metal wherever it can 

 be substituted for wood ; and although its use is more expensi\e 



than that of wood, you will join with me in the hope that no 

 mistaken desire of economy will prevail now, as the time has 

 arrived to furnish our priceless collections with adequate fittings. 

 Probably all of those present are aware that the formation of 

 a natural history library has been urged almost from the very 

 first day on which the removal of the Natural History Col- 

 lections to .South Kensington was proposed. But the cost and 

 extent of such a library have been very variously esti- 

 mated. And I am sorry to say that it is, I believe, owing to 

 expressions of opinion on the part of those who ought to know 

 better, that the cost of this library was considerably underrated 

 when the removal to South Kensington was determined i_upon. 

 We cannot blame the Government that they hesitated for years 

 before they acceded to the pressing representations of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum to begin with its formation, when 

 they were told by naturalists that the cost of such a library would 

 be something between :o,ooo/. and 20,000/. I could hardly 

 believe my eyes when I read, only a few weeks ago, in the 

 leader of a weekly periodical specially devoted to science, 

 "that had the Trustees put aside 1,000/. a year for this purpose, 

 when it was first determined to remove the Natural History Col- 

 lections ten years ago, there would have been by this time in 

 existence a library fully adequate to the purpose." The writer 

 must have either a very poor idea of the objects and work of a 

 national museum, or an imperfect knowledge of the extent of the 

 literature of natural history. 10,000/. might suffice to purchase 

 a good ornithological library, and i.coo/. would purchase the 

 annual additions to all the various branches of natural history ; 

 but the former sum would be much too small if the purchase of 

 those worlvs only were intended which are required for the 

 technical work of naming animals, plants, fossils, and minerals. 

 A better calculation was made by the Select Committee of the 

 Mouse of Commons on the British Museum in i860, who stated 

 tliat the formation of a natural history library would "cost abo.it 

 30,000/. at the present time " (1S60). Considering that twenty 

 years have elapsed since, and that this part of the literature has 

 shown year by year a steady increase, we must put our estimate 

 considerably higher than the writer of that article. 



With the aid of some of my friends who know, from their 

 daily occupation, the market value of natural history works, I 

 made a calculation some years ago, and we came to the con- 

 clusion that a complete natural history library will cost 70,000/., 

 and, unpalatable as this statement may be to those who have 

 advocated the removal of the natural history collections, and 

 therefore must be held responsible for this concomitant expense, 

 it will be found to be true. It will be satisfactory to you to 

 learn that the Government have at last sanctioned the expenditure 

 of lialf that amount. 



Now, in my opinion, such a library formed in connection with 

 the National Museum should not be reserved for the use of the 

 officials, but I would recommend that it should be accessible to 

 the general class of students in the same manner as any other 

 part of the collections. It is for this reason that I wish to see 

 it rendered as perfect as possible with respect to the older publica- 

 tions (many of which are getting scarcer year by year) as well as to 

 the most recent. Whether or not a similarly perfect collection of 

 natural histoi7booksexists in someother place inLondon, is another 

 question with which I am not concerned. It is evident that a 

 general national library ought to contain a perfect set of books on 

 natural histor)', irrespective of other claims ; but to have natural 

 history collections in one place, and the books relating to them 

 in another miles away, will produce as much inconvenience as is 

 experienced .by the person who puts the po .vder into the one 

 barrel of his gun and the shot into the other. 



If the British Museum (for the collections will remain united 

 under this old time-honoured name, though locally separated) 

 continues to receive that support from the Government to which 

 it is justlyentitled, I have no doubt that it will not only fulfil all the 

 aims of a national collection, but that it will be also able to give 

 to the kindred provincial institutions the aid which has recently 

 been claimed on their behalf. Under an Act of Parliament 

 wliich was passed in the previous session, and which empowers 

 the Trustees to part with duplicate specimens, several of those 

 museums have already received collections of zoological objects. 

 But I consider it my duty to caution those wlio are in charge of 

 those museums to be careful as to the manner in which^ they 

 avail themselves of this opportunity. Well-preserved duplicates 

 of the rarer and more valuable vertebrate animals are very 

 s:arce in the British Museum; the funds for purchase being 

 mtcli too small to permit of the acquisition of duplicates. What 



