34 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 184, 



lected the objects of nature alone, and 

 another the beautiful or industrial products 

 of man. So drawing apart by a mutual re- 

 pulsion the Museums of Natural History 

 became separated from those of Art, and the 

 fantastic combinations of a statue sprouting 

 from a galaxy of shells or paintings alter- 

 nating with fish skeletons and minerals or 

 a bronze medallion encircled with bird's 

 feathers happily disappeared. 



The earliest museums were all private 

 afiairs prepared with some relevancy to the 

 owner's tastes or the prevailing fashion of 

 collectors. It was much later that clusters 

 of individuals organized as societies made 

 the building up of a Museum a part of their 

 duty. Samuel Quickelberg, of Amsterdam, 

 a physician, published at Munich in 1565 

 one of the first printed catalogues of such a 

 museum ; also at the same time Conrad 

 Gesner described the cabinet of Johann 

 Kentmann, a physician of Torgau, in Sax- 

 ony, which consisted of ' minerals, shells 

 and marine animals.' 



Amongst the whimsicalities connected 

 with this subject, the following extract from 

 Professor Flower's address before the Brit- 

 ish Association for the Advancement of 

 Science in 1889 fully reveals their amusing 

 character. Professor Flower has brought to 

 light an entertaining specimen page of a 

 catalogue compiled by the two Tradescants, 

 father and son, in 1656 and entitled ' Mu- 

 seum Tradescantium ; or a Collection of 

 Parities preserved at South Lambert neer 

 London ; ' item, ' Some Kindes of Birds 

 their Egges, Beaks, Feathers, Clawes and 

 Spurres ; Divers sorts of Egges from Turkic, 

 one given for a Dragon's Egge ; Easter 

 Egges of the Patriarch of Jerusalem ; Two 

 Feathers of the Phoenix Tayle ; The Claw 

 of the bird Pock, who, as Authors report, 

 is able to trusse an Elephant ; Dodar from 

 the Island Mauritius ; it is not able to fly 

 being so big;' Again ' Garments, Vestures, 

 Habits, and Ornaments,' again ' Mechanick, 



Artificial Workes in Carvings, Turnings, 

 Sowings, and Paintings,' wherein we find 

 the 'Pohatan, King of Virginia's habit, all 

 embroidered with shells or Eoanoke,' and 

 the ' Cherry-stone upon one side S. George 

 and the Dragon perfectly cut, and on the 

 other side 88 Emperours' faces,' and yet 

 another ' cherry-stone, holding ten dozen 

 tortoise-shell combs made by Edward Gib- 

 bons.' 



To-day the Museum of Science stands or 

 ought to stand as the representative ex- 

 pression of the progress of science. Its pos- 

 sible dimensions are difficult to overesti- 

 mate, for its proportions should be correla- 

 ted with, and reflective of, all that learning 

 thinks and nature shows in the vast prov- 

 inces of creation. It is, I think, with su- 

 preme justice that Professor Flower boldly 

 asserts that " it has only been the diffi- 

 culties, real or imaginary, in illustrating 

 them which have excluded such subjects as 

 astronomy, physics, chemistry and physio- 

 logy from occupying departments in our 

 National Natural History Museum ; while 

 allowing the introduction of their sister 

 sciences, mineralogy, geology, botany and 

 zoology." 



But it can also be profitably remembered 

 that the maintenance of any stupendous 

 accumulation of material, and its associated 

 activities in lectures, publications and 

 keepers involves gigantic expenditures not 

 to be always well distributed or wisely ad- 

 ministered. Therefore for very practical 

 reasons the experimental sciences are not 

 represented in our museums, withdrawing 

 by a natural refinement of sympathy to 

 schools of science, colleges, and special in- 

 stitutes, and the museum of natural his- 

 tory more distinctively presents to the 

 public the manifestations of life, even of 

 mind, and the inorganic elements and their 

 combinations. 



I have said that the museum exercises 

 three functions, that of the collector, the 



