82 Notes and Comments. 
which Mr. Asquith strongly objects; ‘ flea-bites,’ as Sir Ray 
Lancaster agrees, being ‘ disagreeable’) is nothing compared 
with the great loss which the closing of the museums means. 
The good work that museums accomplish is not to be reckoned 
by turnstile-records alone, but the mere number of visitors is 
some indication of the way in which the museums are appre- 
ciated. It has been said that there has been a falling off in 
the attendance since the war started. This certainly was 
so immediately after war was declared, but recent figures 
show that the numbers are on the increase, and certainly in a 
great proportion of the provincial museums the attendances 
are now greater than ever. 
OUR WOUNDED SOLDIERS. 
There is another aspect of the case. Visitors to London at 
the present time are sorrowfully impressed by the enormous 
number of wounded soldiers who are everywhere to be seen. 
For the most part those came from our colonies in every part 
of the globe. Their enforced detention in the greatest city 
in the world—the central home of the arts and sciences—gives 
them the opportunity to spend their long, long hours in fulfilling 
what is to most of them, their heart’s desire, examining the 
records of ancient and modern civilizations which are preserved 
more completely than anywhere else in the globe—in our national 
museums. This one solace is denied them by our ‘ flea-biting * 
Government ; a Government which spends as much as it 
saves in closing the museums, in the salaries of two of its 
Law Officers of the Crown alone ; a Government which spends 
five times as much a year than this proposed saving, in paying 
the self-imposed salaries to its members. 
SUPERVISION, 
It has been stated that the closing of the museums would 
release ‘hordes of policemen’ who are at present supervising 
the collections. The actual facts are that such police are either 
over military age or medically unfit. But even if their release 
for any other purpose, were desirable, there are plenty of 
wounded soldiers who are sufficiently convalescent to take their 
places, even if they took it in turns to give their services one 
day a week, and this they would willingly do. Further, as 
has been pointed out to the Prime Minister, it would be quite 
an easy matter to find volunteers to carry out these duties. 
Another argument in favour of closing the museums has been 
that they might be useful to the Government for the purposes 
of offices, etc., in connection with war work. This, we believe, 
was actually a consideration when the recommendations were 
first made, but it was soon found that the suggestion was 
impracticable. But, supposing they were suitable, surely 
Naturalist, 
