October 29, 1896J 



NA TURE 



637 



the case of unusually expensive papers, the parent society maile 

 a special ijranl, if necessary. 



Mr. l)e Ranee approved of Mr. Abbott's plan, and felt that 

 with<iut an organising secretary nothing in the way of federation 

 would ever he accomplished. 



Mr. \V. T. Ilindniarsh said, that while the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club had a large field of work, there was no other 

 naturalists' club in it with which they could unite, though their 

 boundaries included not only Berwickshire, but Northumberland 

 outside Newcastle. 



Prof. Merivale thought that it would be an excellent thing if 

 the Naturalists' Societies could unite as the societies composing 

 the Federated Institution of .Mining Engineers had done. 



I'rof. Johnson said that they had a good example of a Union 

 in Ireland. It comprised four clubs, one in Dublin, another in 

 Belfast, a third in Cork, and a fourth in Limerick. These had 

 one publication, which was common property, The Irish 

 Naturalist. 



-Mr. Eli Sowerbutts felt that, while federation must generally 

 commend itself to all, there were many delicate questions in- 

 volved in it which made it difficult to come to a decision at that 

 meeting. 



After some discussion, it was decided that Mr. Montagu 

 Browne, Prof. Johnson, the Rev. E. P. Knubley, Mr. Ilind- 

 inarsh, Mr. W. W. Watts, Mr. O. W. Jefts, the Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing, and Mr. G. Abbott should form a sub-committee to 

 consider Mr. .Vbbott's propositions, and report to the Cor- 

 responding Societies Committee. 



MBETING of the SUB-C0M.M!TTEE. 



A meeting of the Sub-committee was held on Monday, Sep- 

 tember 21 ; the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing in the chair. The 

 following resolutions were agreed to : — 



( 1 ) That Mr. G. Abbott's paper on District Unions of Natural 

 History Societies be distributed by the Committee of Delegates 

 of the Corresponding Societies amongst all the Natural History 

 Societies in the United Kingdom, with the request that their 

 opinion on the feasibility of the plan advocated in the paper 

 be communicated as early as possible to the Corresponding 

 Societies Committee for its report to the next conference of 

 delegates. 



(2) That the formation of District Unions of Natural History 

 Societies is highly desirable, and would be of general advantage. 



(j) That the Committee of Delegates of Corresponding 

 Societies be requested to take steps to encourage the formation 

 of District Unions of Natural History Societies. 



(4) That it should be distinctly understood that the formation 

 of Unions would not in any way prevent the affiliation of 

 individual Societies of such Unions to the British Association 

 as at present. 



The .second Conference took place on September 22 ; Dr. 

 Ciarson in the chair. 



After some discussion, the report of the Sub-commiJ:tee for 

 the further consideration of Mr. .Abbott's paper was received 

 and adopted.' 



The Chairman then called upon Prof. Flinders Petrie to read 

 a short paper "On a Federal Staff for Local Museums." 



The suggestions only affect a distribution of labour, and will 

 rather economise than require extra expenditure. 



In all local museums the main difficulty of the management is 

 that there is neither money nor work enough for a highly trained 

 and competent man. It is in any case impossible to get a 

 oiniversal genius who can deal with every class of object equally 

 well, and hardly any local museum can afford to pay for a first- 

 class curator on any one subject. These difficulties are entirely 

 the result of a want of co-operation. 



.According to the report of the Committee in 1887, there are 

 fifty-six first class, fifty-five second class, sixty-three third class, 

 and thirty fourth class museums in the kingdom. Setting aside the 

 last two classes as mostly too poor to pay except for mere care- 

 taking, there are in in the other classes ; and deducting a few 

 of the first class museums as being fully provided, there are 100 

 museums, all of which endeavour to keep up to the mark by 

 spending, perhaps, 30/. to 200/. a year on a curator. 



The practical course would seem to be their union, in provid- 

 ing a federal staff, to circulate for all purposes requiring skilled 



1 In connection with this subject, it may be useful to remind the reader of 

 Prof. Meldola's paper on "The Work of Local Societies" (Naturk, 

 •vol. liv. p. 114, June 4, 1896). 



NO. 1409, VOL. 54] 



knowledge ; leaving the ]iermanunt attention 10 each place to 

 devolve on a mere caretaker. If half of these first and second 

 class museums combined in paying 30/. a year each, there would 

 be enough to pay three first-rate men 500/. a year apiece, and 

 each museum would have a week of attention in the year from a 

 geologist, and the same from a zoologist and an archxologist. 



The duties of such a staff would be to arrange and label the 

 new specimens acquired in the past year, taking sometimes a 

 day, or perhaps a fortnight, at one place ; to advise on altera- 

 tions and improvements ; to recommend purchases required to 

 fill up gaps ; to note duplicates and promote exchanges between 

 museums ; and to deliver a lecture on the principal novelties of 

 their own subject in the past year. Such visitants, if well 

 selected, would probably be welcome guests at the houses of 

 some of those interested in the museum in each place. 



The effect at the country museums would be that three times 

 in the year a visitant would arrive for one of the three sections, 

 would work everything up to date, stir the local interests by 

 advice and a lecture, stimulate the caretaker, and arrange 

 routine work that could be carried out before the next year's 

 visit, and yet would not cost more than having down three 

 lecturers for the local institution or society, apart from this work. 



To many, perhaps most, museums 30/. for skilled work, and 

 30/. or 40/. for a caretaker, would be an economy on their 

 jiresent expenditure, while they would get far better attention. 

 Such a system could not be suddenly started ; but if there were 

 an official base for it, curators could interchange work according 

 to their specialities, and as each museum post fell vacant it 

 might be placed in commission among the best curators in that 

 district, until by gradual selection the most competent men were 

 attached to forty or fifty museums to be served in rotation. It 

 is not impossible that the highest class of the local museums 

 might be glad to subscribe, so as to get special attention on 

 subjects outside of the studies of the present curators. 



The Chairman having thanked Prof. Petrie and invited dis- 

 cussion — 



Mr. W. E. Hoyle hoped that no action would be taken in this 

 matter in such a way as to prevent co-operation with the Museums 

 Association. Prof. Petrie's scheme seemed to him a most simple 

 and practical one, and he hoped that those interested would 

 confer with the officials of the Museums Association with regard 

 to it. He thought the chief difficulty in carrying it out was the 

 almost incredible inertia of Museum Committees. 



Mr. M. H. Mills testified to the thoroughness with which 

 such questions were discussed at meetings of the Museums 

 Association. 



.Mr. G. Abbott supported Prof. Petrie's suggestions ; and Mr. 

 Richardson approved them, but thought the Committee of the 

 Dorset County Museum was hardly in a position to incur the 

 expense. 



Prof. Johnson thought it would be a good thing if the 

 Museums Association could become a Corresponding .Society of 

 the British .Association, so that one or more of its chief officials 

 could always be present at discussions of this kind. He would 

 protest strongly against the suggestion that the curators of our 

 museums should be converted into mere caretakers, as he thought 

 the tendency should be of an opposite kind. He thought it 

 would be better that our local societies should make a specialist 

 of some kind their curator, and give him a chance of rising above 

 the position he held at first. 



Prof. Carr regretted that Prof. Petrie's paper had not been 

 read before the Museums Association. Some time ago a sub- 

 ccmimittee had been appointed by that Association to report 

 upim a scheme resembling that of Prof. Petrie, but no definite 

 result had been attained. Possibly if Prof. Petrie were now to 

 bring this paper before the Museums Association, more im- 

 portant effects would be produced. 



Prof. Petrie, in reply, said that this was to a great extent a 

 money question. He did not, however, think that his sugges- 

 tions necessarily involved additional expense. He thought that 

 it was better that the money should be divided between the mere 

 caretakers and the specialists, rather than that an attempt should 

 be made to combine them by employing a man who could not 

 be a specialist on all points. Indeed the curators, who were 

 more than mere caretakers, would, through his plan, receive 

 more than before, as they would be able to render service at a 

 number of jilaces, instead of being confined to one. 



A vote of thanks to Prof. Petrie having been passed, the 

 Chairman invited remarks from the reiiresentatives of the various 

 Sections. 



