SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



LONDON SCIENCE MUSEUMS. 



HPHE Select Committee appointed by Parliament 

 -*- to inquire into and report upon the adminis- 

 tration and cost of the Museums of the Science 

 and Art Department, issued another report at the 

 beginning of May. The first was published in July, 

 1897, and a final one is still promised. The report 

 before us deals with the South Kensington Museum, 

 and the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street. 



The Committee is " unanimously of opinion that 

 with a view to present efficient management, to 

 economy of administration, to future development 

 of the collections, and to their full use for the 

 purpose of exhibition and of instruction, it is 

 necessary : (1) That the whole area on the east 

 side of Exhibition Road (except that occupied by 

 the Royal College of Science, and which cannot be 

 sacrificed except at great cost), be exclusively 

 devoted to the Art Museum and Art Library. (2) 

 That provision for the whole of the Science Col- 

 lection, the Science Library for Loans of Scientific 

 Objects, and for the Science Schools, be made on 

 the west side of Exhibition Road." 



The Committee recommends that this concentra- 

 tion of art on one side of the road and of science 

 on the other side is conducive to good administra- 

 tion, to satisfactory expenditure of the money 

 voted, and general efficiency both in the museum 

 and schools. The site to be devoted to the Science 

 teaching Department seems utterly inadequate in 

 view of the future. This is ably shown in the 

 influentially signed protest printed in " Nature" of 

 19th May last. 



The Committee further recommends, also 

 unanimously, that the Geological Museum in 

 Jermyn Street be no longer occupied, and that the 

 collections at present contained in the building be 

 removed to Exhibition Road, South Kensington, 

 to be made part of the science collections. 



No doubt it is most desirable that the science 

 schools of South Kensington should have every 

 possible facility for examining material of the best 

 character available for their students. We must, 

 however, earnestly protest against the latter 

 recommendation of the Select Committee. The 

 present tendency is to centralize everything of a 

 scientific nature at South Kensington, and so, 

 perhaps inadvertently, to foster professional 

 science and the starvation of the amateur's oppor- 

 tunities. From many points of view South 

 Kensington is admirably situated and could hardly 

 be better for those who are only occupied in 

 scientific work. To others, however, to whom 

 collections for reference are equally important, this 

 centralization at South Kensington makes them as 

 unattainable as if they were deposited in one of the 



great Midland towns. To the busy man occupied 

 in the City, at Charing Cross, and even at West- 

 minster, a visit to South Kensington Museum is 

 as rare an event as to many of his country cousins. 

 Such an occasion means devoting a couple of hours 

 or more during the busiest portion of the day, being 

 that when the reference types at the museums 

 are open. To many persons it is impossible to 

 spend this time in comparing or identifying a 

 specimen. What is really wanted is not the 

 removal of the Jermyn Street Museum — one of 

 the most useful in London — but others in more 

 central positions, in different branches of natural 

 science, with type collections. We would ask our 

 very large circle of metropolitan readers, and those 

 in the country who frequently visit London for a 

 short time only, to say how often they visit the 

 South Kensington Museums ? 



We are very pleased to find ourselves in such 

 good company, in opinion, as with Professor 

 W. Boyd Dawkins, who has entered a loud protest 

 against the removal of the Museum of Practical 

 Geology from Piccadilly. His letter appears in the 

 " Times " of May 12th, and is of such importance 

 we take the liberty of quoting it. Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins says : 



" The removal of the Jermyn Street Museum and 

 Library to South Kensington, recommended in an 

 interim report ot the Select Committee, surely could 

 only have been proposed as a ballon d'essai and 

 without consideration of the interests involved. If 

 it be carried out the museum will not only lose its 

 unique character, but it will become comparatively 

 useless to many busy men who have found it of the 

 greatest service, and who cannot spare the time to 

 journey to a distant suburb. Its present position, 

 close to the scientific heart of London — Burlington 

 House, the home of the learned societies, and 

 within a few minutes' drive of the Institutions of 

 Civil and Mechanical Engineers and of the Houses 

 of Parliament — causes it to be largely used in 

 matters relating to geology, mining and Civil 

 Engineering. It would be worse than a mistake to 

 uproot it and make it a mere unit in the fortuitous 

 concourse of atoms known as the Science and 

 Art Museum at South Kensington. 



"It is at present the only repository in this 

 country where the specimens and the literature 

 generally relating to mining are brought together. 

 It is also organically connected with the Geological 

 Survey of Great Britain, just as the Ecole des 

 Mines in Paris is linked to the Geological Survey 

 of France. It is admirably organized, and covers 

 a section of human knowledge which has nothing 

 to do with the Science and Art collections. To 

 sink it in a great overgrown department that deals 

 dc omnibus rebus et quibusdain aliis, and that has 

 not yet classified properly its own multifarious 

 collections, would be an injury to material interests 

 which ought not to be allowed by Parliament. 



"The institution in its present place is doing 

 good work. Why meddle with it ? Instead of 



