NATURE 



761 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



A Suggested Royal Commission on Museums . . 761 

 Meteorological Theory in Practice. By Sir Napier 



Shaw, F.R.S 762 



Parker and Haswell's "Zoology" .... 765 



Cancer and the Public. By A. E. B. . . . 766 



Empire Water- Power. By Dr. Brysson Cunningham 767 



Our Bookshelf 767 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Spectrum of the Night Sky. — The Right Hon. Lord 



Rayleigh, F.R.S 769 



Medical Education. —Sir G. Archdall Reid, K. B. E. 769 

 Divided Composite Eyes. (Illustrated. ) — A. Mallock, 



F.R.S 770 



Action of Cutting Tools. (With Diagram.) — H. T. 



Rowell 771 



An Empire Patent. — Ernest E. Towler . . 772 

 The Movement of the Positive After-image. — Dr. 



F. W. Edridge-Green 772 



Acoustic Research. — Prof. Theodore Lyman . 773 

 Separation of the Isotopes of Zinc. — Alfred C. 



Egerton 773 



A Curious Feature in the Hardness of Metals. — 



Hugh O'Neill and Dr. F. C. Thompson . . 773 

 The Use of a Pancreatic Extract in Diabetes. By 



Sir C. S. Sherrington, G.B.E., P. R.S. . 774 

 The West Indian College of Tropical Agriculture. 



By Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S 775 



The Flow of Steels at a Low Red Heat . . . 776 

 The Manufacture of Acids during the War. By Prof. 



T. M. Lowry, F.R.S 777 



Prof. Max Weber — Celebration of 70TH Birthday 7S0 

 Obituary : — 



H. J. Elwes, F.R.S 7S0 



J. H. Gurney. By W. E. C. . . . . 781 



Current Topics and Events 782 



Our Astronomical Column 7S5 



Research Items 786 



The Roval Society Anniversary Meeting . . . 787 

 Live Specimens of Spirula. (Illustrated.) — By Dr. 



Johs. Schmidt ........ 788 



Solar Radiation at Helwan Observatory . . . 790 

 Natural Gas Gasoline. By H. B. Milner . . .791 



The Teaching of Physics to Engineering Students . 792 



University and Educational Intelligence . . 792 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 793 



Societies and Academies 794 



Official Publications Received 796 



Diary of Societies 796 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



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Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address : PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



NO. 2 7/1, VOL I IO] 



A Suggested Royal Commission on 

 Museums. 



FR< )M time to time there appear in Nature and 

 elsewhere notes and articles that afford con- 

 clusive evidence of the valuable work done by our 

 museums in scholastic education, in aid of industry 

 on its technical as well as its artistic side, in the pre- 

 vention of plant, animal, and human disease, in the 

 general spread of beauty, and in the advancement of 

 learning. But the work that is done is sparsely 

 scattered through a large number of museums, and 

 the isolated examples serve rather to show what might 

 be accomplished than to give us cause for self-gratula- 

 tion. There are in the British Isles about a score of 

 national museums (supported, that is, in large part 

 by Imperial taxation) and probably more than 350 

 museums and galleries supported mainly by local 

 contributions. It would be no great exaggeration to 

 say that scarcely two of these establishments are 

 maintained and governed in quite the same way. 

 Like so many other of our institutions they have 

 originated at haphazard and have just " growed," 

 generally by unorganised accretion. Consequently, 

 while some have the desire and the means to be of 

 use in one or other of the ways enumerated, more have 

 the desire without the means, and many have neither 

 the desire nor the means. In no case has a museum 

 the power and the funds to make all that use of its 

 treasures which could be made, and which its guiding 

 spirits probably wish to see. 



For some time past there have been efforts from 

 various quarters to remedy the waste of material, 

 waste of money, and waste of effort that are the 

 consequences of overlapping, competition, lack of co- 

 ordination, inappropriate administration, unequal dis- 

 tribution of funds, and all the other evils inherent in 

 this disorder. The Ministry of Reconstruction tried 

 to bring all the municipal museums, if no others, under 

 the Board of Education, but the museums protested. 

 An important committee of the British Association 

 produced a valuable report on museums and education. 

 Lord Sudeley by pegging away has induced the Govern- 

 ment to pay for guide-lecturers in several of its museums, 

 and has advocated with some success the sale of 

 picture-postcards. The Museums Association, which 

 represents the views of museum officials themselves, 

 urges, among other reforms, that museum curators 

 must be highly trained men and women of broad 

 education, and recognises that the only way to get 

 such people is to offer an adequate salary. 



These movements are very well, but if we are to 

 make the best use of our museums something larger 

 is required. Mr. Bailey, in a paper read at the recent 



