NATURE 



397 



THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1874 



THE SCIENCE COMMISSION'S MUSEUM 

 REPORT 



THE Royal Commission on Scientific Instruction and 

 the Advancement of Science have just issued their 

 fourth Report, which is mainly concerned with tlic prin- 

 cipal public Scientific Museums and Collections of the 

 Metropolis, touching also briefly on the Scientific Mu- 

 seums and Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh and Dublin, 

 and at some length upon provincial Local Museums 

 generally, and upon the means by which these last might 

 be made widely beneficial for scientific instruction. The 

 Report also deals with the subject of Public Lectures in 

 connection with Museums. 



The Metropolitan Museums dealt with in the Report 

 are the British Museum, the Museum of the Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, the National Botanical Collections and 

 Gardens, the ;\Iuseum of Practical Geology, and the 

 South Kensington Museum, with its branch at Bethnal 

 Green. The Report of the Commission is founded upon 

 a thorough investigation into the growth and present con- 

 dition of these institutions, and the opinions of a large 

 number of men competent to speak on the subject as to 

 the best means of systematising the various institutions, 

 and of enabling them to discharge efficiently the objects 

 for which they exist. The following are the principal 

 I recommendations of the Commissioners, which we prefer 

 ' to give in the words of the Report. 



With regard to the Natural History Collections of the 

 I British Museum, it is recommended : — 

 ! " That a Director be appointed by the Crown, and 

 should have the entire administration of the establish- 

 ment, under the control of a Minister of State, to whom 

 J he should be immediately responsible. That the appoint- 

 ments of keepers and other scientific officers should be 

 made by the Minister, after communication with the 

 Director and with the Board of Visitors. 

 I " That a Board of Visitors be constituted, to be nomi- 

 I nated in part by the Crown, in part by the Royal and 

 j certain other Scientific Societies of the metropolis, and, in 

 ' the first instance, in part also by the Board of Trustees ; 

 the members to be appointed for a limited period, but to 

 be re-eligible ; and that the Board of Visitors should 

 make annual reports to the Minister, to be laid before 

 Parhament, on the condition, management, and require- 

 ments of the Museum, and should be empowered to give 

 him advice on any points affecting its administration." 



With regard to the National Botanical Collections and 

 Gardens, the Commission recommend : — 



"That the collections at the British Museum be main- 

 tained and arranged with special reference to the geo- 

 graphical distribution of plants and to palasontology ; and 

 that the collections at Kew be maintained and arranged 

 with special reference to systematic botany. 



" That all collections of recent plants made by Govern- 

 ment expeditions be, in the first instance, sent to Kew, to 

 be there worked out and distributed, a set being reserved 

 for the British Museum ; and that all collections of fossil 

 pbnts made by Government expeditions be sent to the 

 British Museum. 



" That opportunities for the pursuit of investigations in 

 physiological botany should be afforded in the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew.'' 



With regard to the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, it is recommended : — 

 Vol. IX. — No. 230 



" That, should the fund at the disposal of the College 

 prove inadequate for the efficient maintenance and con- 

 tinued extension of the Museum, it should receive sup- 

 port from the State, as an institution intimately connected 

 with the progress of biological science in this country." 



With regard to the Scientific Collections of the South 

 Kensington Museum, the Commissioners recommend : — 



" The formation of a collection of physical and me- 

 chanical instruments ; and they submit for consideration 

 whether it may not be expedient that this collection, the 

 collection of the Patent Museum, and that of the scientific 

 and educational department of the South Kensington 

 Museum, should be united and placed under the authority 

 of a Minister of State." 



With regard to Provincial Museums, the Commission- 

 ers recommend :— 



"That, in connection with the Science and Art Section 

 of the Education Department, qualified naturalists be 

 appointed to direct the collection of specimens in order 

 to supply whatever deficiencies exist in the more im- 

 portant provincial museums ; and also in order to organise 

 typical Museums, to be sent by the Department of Science 

 and Art into the provinces to such .Science Schools as may 

 be reported to be likely to make them efficient instru- 

 ments of scientific instruction. 



" That a system of inspection of provincial museums 

 be organised with a view of reporting on their condition, 

 and on the extent to which they are usefully employed, 

 and whether the conditions of the loan or grant from the 

 Department of Science and Art have been fulfilled." 



The final recommendations are on the subject of 

 Lectures, and are : — • 



" That courses of lectures be given in connection with 

 the collection of physical and mechanical instruments, 

 the object of these lectures being to illustrate the progress 

 of scientific and mechanical discovery and invention. 



" That the establishment of lectures on Science, acces- 

 sible to all classes on the payment of a small fee, should 

 be promoted by the Government in the great centres ot 

 population. 



" That, in the first instance with the view of carrying 

 out the preceding recommendation, the system of instruc- 

 tion of this kind, which has already been established by 

 the Government in the metropolis, should be developed 

 by the institution of courses ot lectures on the principal 

 branches of Experimental and Natural Science. 



"That the proposed lectures be of two kinds (i) lec- 

 tures of an elementary character on the general principles 

 and most important facts of Science ; (2) lectures 

 specially intended for the working classes on the applica- 

 tion ot Science to the arts and industries of the 

 country." 



Until this Report was issued no general survey had ever 

 been taken of our Museum system, if that can be called 

 a system the growth of which has been almost entirely 

 the result of accident. Both in the metropolis and in the 

 provinces there exists a large number of museums and of 

 collections of various kinds— to a large extent, however, 

 connected with Natural History, and in local museums 

 with Antiquities— but in almost every case, when the history 

 of any of these institutions is traced, it will be found that 

 it had its origin in quite an accidental way, and that no 

 well-defined and intelligent system has been followed in 

 the establishment of those institutions meant for public 

 instruction. Some of the consequences of this capricious 

 birth and untrained growth of the institutions referred to 

 are that, especially in the metropolis, we have a hete- 

 rogeneous collection of museums that have no relation 



