NA TURE 



[September 2, 1922 



Current Topics and Events. 



In an address to the Rothamsted branch of the 

 National Union of Scientific Workers, reported in the 

 Scientific Worker for June, Prof. A. L. Bowley pleaded, 

 as so many have done, for an " interpreter " to 

 mediate between science and the laity. He suggests 

 that " one test of greatness in works of art is that 

 they should make a direct appeal to those whose 

 powers of appreciation are not specialised," and, by 

 analogy, that the greatest science should be the most 

 easily interpreted. But what does the analogy really 

 prove ? The " art " which is appreciated without 

 any specialisation is that of the Merry Widow waltz 

 or Poems of Cheer ; the appreciation of a Bach fugue 

 or a Shakespeare sonnet does require some " specialisa- 

 tion " ; it requires, not practice of the art, but some 

 deliberate self-education. If the laity would (or 

 could) educate themselves in science as they do in 

 art, interpreters might be forthcoming who would 

 do for science what in our generation Berenson and 

 Mr. Roger Fry have done for painting or Sir Henry 

 Wood and Mr. Ernest Newman for music. The 

 difficulty now is that the wholly " unspecialised " 

 laity demand " interpretation " in terms of concepts 

 of which science denies the validity, just as they 

 demand sensual prettiness in painting and catch iness 

 of tune in music. Before interpretation can begin 

 there must be an effort to understand ; men of Prof. 

 Bowley's eminence in other branches of learning must 

 not pronounce ex cathedra that " science is not 

 beautiful " ; men must know that science is beautiful 

 ■ — to those who will train themselves to appreciate 

 its beauty. 



The Museums Journal for July 1922 criticises the 

 announcement of the Board of Education that in 

 future local authorities wilf be charged with half the 

 actual cost of transporting the collections sent on 

 loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum to pro- 

 vincial museums and art galleries. Hitherto there 

 has been a uniform charge of 2I. 10s. The change will 

 make little difference to places near London, but will 

 be prohibitive for the less wealthy distant towns. 

 The collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum 

 were originally intended to help museums and students 

 throughout the country. Gradually there arose a 

 division between the objects retained in the museum 

 and those put into circulation ; but the Circulation 

 Department remained an important section of the 

 museum. Now it is contended that the two are " in 

 hopeless competition in regard to purchase of objects." 

 This, if true, is absurd, and we agree that something 

 should be done to co-ordinate the work of the various 

 national museums inter se and with the work of the 

 provincial museums. 



While the Museums Journal seems to be of the 

 opinion that the national museums do not do enough 

 for those in the provinces, Mr. Lawrence Haward, in 

 a lecture to the Royal Society of Arts (published in 

 the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for July 28, 

 and in the Museums Journal for July and August 1922), 

 says : " If more has not been done to make the National 



Collections available to the nation, as distinct from 

 the inhabitants of London, it is largely, I think, 

 because the provincial galleries have not always 

 realised how ungrudgingly those in authority in the 

 great National Galleries and Museums will impart 

 their knowledge and render assistance in a variety 

 of ways to their provincial colleagues out of the 

 abundance of their own treasures." And again, he 

 says of provincial museums : " If only they know how 

 to use their opportunities, and are given a fair chance 

 of putting their knowledge into practice, they can 

 become a really vital influence in the town . . . 

 acting as cultural centres for the whole community." 

 Without attempting to decide whether it is the 

 national museums or the provincial museums that 

 are most to blame, such acquaintance as we have 

 with the work of both has forced us to the conclusion 

 that the provincial public does not sufficiently 

 appreciate the advantages of its own local museums, 

 and frequently worries the officials of metropolitan 

 institutions with questions that would have been 

 much more conveniently dealt with nearer home. 



In commemoration of the bi-centenarv of the 

 appointment of Bernard de Jussieu as demonstrator 

 of botany at the Paris Jardin des Plantes, the Abbe 

 L. Parcot in La Nature (July 1) gives an interesting 

 account of his work, especially the foundation of 

 the Botanic Garden at the Petit Trianon at Versailles. 

 The latter was of Supreme interest as the birth-place 

 of the natural system of classification of plants. 

 De Jussieu was commissioned in 1750 by Louis XV. 

 to lay out a botanic garden at Petit Trianon. Sixteen 

 years before, Linnaeus had published his artificial 

 system of classification which was enthusiastically 

 adopted by botanists owing to its simplicity of 

 working, as it was based on obvious characters of 

 the sexual organs. Linnaeus had, however, also 

 published some " Fragmenta " of a natural system ; 

 that is, one in which plants were arranged according 

 to the sum of relationships of all their characters. 

 Starting with these " Fragmenta," de Jussieu 

 developed a system according to which he arranged 

 the plants in his new garden, and prepared a manu- 

 script catalogue indicating the grouping of the genera 

 in families, and also the list of species included under the 

 genera. This catalogue was published by his nephew, 

 Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, in 1789, twelve years 

 after the death of Jussieu himself. The system was 

 further elaborated by Antoine, and later by Augustin 

 Pyrame de Candolle, and attained its modern develop- 

 ment in the classic work of Bentham and Hooker. 

 The famous botanical school and garden of the 

 Trianon were dispersed after the death of Louis XV., 

 and for a long time the site of the garden was un- 

 certain. L'Abbe Parcot has, however, reproduced in 

 La Nature some original plans in which the position 

 of the garden is indicated, to the right of the chateau : 

 a cedar of Lebanon and other conifers remain 

 where they were planted by de Jussieu, and a few other 

 of his trees which were replanted in the lawns and 

 flower garden are still standing. 



NO. 



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