Essays on museums, and other subjects connected with natural history

Front matter

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Preface

Haying lately, during an enforced period of restraint from active occupation, had leisure to look back upon the events of a somewhat busy life, it occurred to me that besides the administration, in succession, of two large public museums, and some original scientific investigation, the results of which can be of interest only to the very few, there have been occa¬ sions which have involved a contact with wider and more varied circles.

Though the records of these occasions have doubtless been mainly of passing or local concern, it is possible that some¬ thing may be found among them worth placing in a more accessible and permanent form than in the scattered journals or pamphlets in which they can only be found at present.

Such of these essays and addresses as seemed suitable for republication in the present collection mainly group them¬ selves under three distinct branches of the many into which the intellectual and educational activity of our age is manifested.

1. Those which are here placed first are, more closely than any others, connected with the practical work of my life, — the advancement of scientific knowledge through the development of museums. Here I cannot refrain from expressing my deep sense of the loss this cause has recently sustained by the premature death of Dr. Brown Goode, Director of the United States National Museum. Fortunately for science he was able to formulate his latest views “ On the Principles of Museum Administration ” in an elaborate paper contributed

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PREFACE to the Newcastle-on-Tyne meeting of the “ Museums Associa¬ tion ” and published in the report for 1895.

2. The essays on general Biological questions treat very considerably of a subject of even wider interest, — the per¬ manence or transmutation of species, especially in its bearing upon the doctrine of evolution. It might be thought that nothing more need now be said upon this subject, but it is certain that there is still much misapprehension in relation to it ; and it may be interesting to some to know the arguments which have been brought forward at various stages of the great controversy by one whose scientific life began before the publication of the Origin of Species, and to whom it has fallen to present the principal problems connected with it in various aspects and to various classes of intelligence and education. If some of the essays may not be upon the level of our present knowledge as to facts, the principal lines of thought which run through them are not materially changed by the additions made to that knowledge, and so it has been thought best to leave them as originally written, except for an occasional verbal alteration. The dates at which they were first published should, in all cases, be carried in mind. Sometimes a repetition of ideas or even of verbal expressions found elsewhere may be met with, but these have been allowed to stand, so that each essay may be complete in itself.

3. Upon the third subject, the main point of which is the advocacy of a more systematic study of Anthropology in this country, there has been, as it seems to me, less advance than in either of the other two ; and in putting forth its claims for greater recognition I felt for a long time as one crying in the wilderness. I am glad, therefore, to have the oppor¬ tunity of bringing much which has been said in some of these addresses once more before the notice of those who may have opportunities of forwarding the work, and also acknowledging various recent signs of progress, among which

PREFACE ix may be mentioned the establishment of a Professorship of this subject by the University of Oxford.

4. The short sketches of some of the personal character¬ istics of the contemporary naturalists of our country who have been most prominent in advancing the branches of science to which the essays of the first three sections are devoted form a not unnatural sequel to them.

In conclusion, my best thanks are offered to the various institutions and persons who have kindly given permission for the republication of the essays, the source of which is in every case acknowledged ; but I may especially mention the Council of the Eoyal Society in respect to the biographical notices from their Proceedings ; the Council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, for various addresses published in the reports of their meetings ; the Council of the Eoyal Institution and of the Eoyal Colonial Institute, for lectures given before them and published in their Proceedings ; the proprietors of the North American Review and of Chambers’s Journal , for articles contributed originally to those periodicals ; and Messrs. A. and C. Black and Messrs. Macmillan and Co. Ltd., for illustrations of the articles on “ Whales,” and on “ Fashion in Deformity.”

W. H. F.

26 Stanhope Gardens, London, Easter 1898.

MUSEUMS

1. Museum Organisation. — Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Newcastle-on- Tyne Meeting, 11th September 1889

Choice of subject — Museums of the Ancients and of the Middle Ages — The terms Natural History and Naturalist — Definition of a Natural History Museum — Subdivisions of the sciences repre¬ sented in a Natural History Museum — Objects of museums — Research and instruction — Methods of arranging specimens for study and for public exhibition — Labels — Guide - books and catalogues — Biological problems of the day — Evolution of organic beings — Natural Selection — Survival of the Fittest — Difficulties arising from the imperfection of our knowledge.

2. Modern Museums. Presidential Address to the Museums Association. London Meeting, 3rd July 1893

The Museums Association — Cost of museums — Qualifications and remuneration of curators — Museum literature — The new Museum idea — Separation of specimens required for the advance¬ ment of science and for general instruction — The newT Natural History Museums of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin — American museums — Plan for a model National Natural History Museum.

3. Local Museums. From a Letter in support of the establish¬ ment of a County Museum for Buckinghamshire (24th November 1891), and an Address at the opening of the Perth Museum (29th November 1895)

Desirability of having museums in every county to preserve tangible records of local history, customs, and natural history — Necessity of provision for their permanent maintenance and for paid curators — Such museums should be formed in connection with technical schools and free libraries, and supported from the same sources.

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4. School Museums. Suggestions for the formation and

arrangement of a Museum of Natural History in connection with a Public School. Nature , 26th December 1889

Subjects best adapted for School Museums — Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy and Geology — What kind of specimens are desirable — Every collection or series should be kept perfectly distinct — A permanent curator necessary.

5. Boys’ Museums. Chambers ’ Edinburgh Journal , April

Natural History an absorbing passion with many boys — Often a passing phase, sometimes permanent — Natural History as a vocation — Love of collecting — Value as a means of education — Hints to beginners in forming museums — Personal experiences of the author.

6. The Booth Museum. Address at the opening of the Booth Museum, Brighton. 3rd November 1890

Formation and object of the Museum — The art of Taxidermy — Observation of bird life an unfailing source of pleasure, increas¬ ing with increase of knowledge — Such museums promote this knowledge and add to human happiness.

7. The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Presidential Address to the Anatomical Section of the International Medical Congress. London Meeting, 4th August 1881

John Hunter, the founder of the Museum — His collection purchased by Government and placed in the custody of the Royal College of Surgeons under certain conditions — Branches of Biology represented in the Museum — Foundation and present condition of each section — Value of the Museum to the surgical profession and the country — Its future maintenance assured by the munificent bequest of Sir Erasmus Wilson.

GENERAL BIOLOGY

8. Introductory Lecture to the Course of Comparative Anatomy. Royal College of Surgeons of England, 14tli February 1870

The course intended to illustrate the Museum — John Hunter’s work as a comparative anatomist — The Museum teaches morpho¬ logy — The study of morphology has led in succession to the ideas

PAGE xm of (1) teleology or direct adaptation to purpose : (2) type or common plan ; (3) descent from a common ancestor with modifi¬ cation, according to the great principle of orderly evolution — Reception and gradual recognition of the last hypothesis — Some objections to it answered — Explanation it affords of anatomical structures, otherwise accounted for with difficulty — Illustrations — Importance of discriminating essential or fundamental from adaptive characters — Classification — Wider knowledge of morpho¬ logy the basis of an intelligent study of human anatomy.

9. Recent Advances in Natural Science in relation to the Christian Faith. Paper read at the Church Con¬ gress. Reading Meeting, 2nd October 1883

The doctrine of evolution as applied to the life of organic beings — Causes which led to the old belief in the fixity of species, and to the change of opinion upon the subject, now almost universal — Effects of this change of opinion upon our ideas in relation to Creation and the Origin of Man.

10. A Practical Lesson from Biological Studies. Reply to Working Men’s Address to the President of the British Association. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 14th September 1889

The survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence, one of the main causes of progress.

11. Paleontological Evidence of Gradual Modification of Animal Forms. Lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 25th April 1873

The history of the order Ungulata, or hoofed animals, as traced through the Tertiary geological period, shows, as time advanced, a gradual differentiation from more generalised to specialised forms — The existing species are only survivors of large numbers which lived in former times, and are now isolated by the extinction of the intermediate forms.

12. A Century’s Progress in Zoological Knowledge. Presidential Address in the Department of Zoology and Botany. British Association, Dublin Meeting, 15th August 1878

The last edition of the Systema Naturae, revised by Linnams, was published in 1766 — The first portion of the work, devoted to the class Mammalia examined, and the progress made in the knowledge of each order since that time reviewed — Observations on classification and zoological nomenclature.

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13. The Zoological Society of London. Address at the General Meeting of the Society, held in the Zoological Gardens, in celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Her Majesty’s reign, 16th June 1887 .

Foundation and growth of the Society — Acclimatisation — Museum — Scientific meetings — Publications — Lectures — Mena¬ gerie — Recent improvements.

14. Whales and Whale Fisheries. Lecture at the Royal Colonial Institute, 8th January 1895

Fishes and whales — General characters of the latter — Sperm whale — Whalebone whales — Mode of capture — Whale fishery of the Basques in the Middle Ages — Greenland whale fishery — Southern whale fisheries.

15. Whales, Past and Present, and their Probable Origin.

Lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 25th May 1883 . ......

Rudimentary organs giving indications of former conditions and origin — Hair — Organs of sight and smell — Teeth — Nature and use of baleen or whalebone — Fore-limbs — Hind Limbs — Geological history — All evidence in favour of derivation from land animals, probably through forms originally inhabiting fresh waters.

16. Presidential Address to the Department of Anthro¬ pology. British Association, York Meeting, 1st September 1881 .......

Importance of the study of race — Natural classification of man — Causes of racial difference — Race a vague term — Craniometry — Necessity for larger collections and more workers.

17. Presidential Address to the Section of Anthropology. British Association, Oxford Meeting, 9th August 1894

History of the subject in England — Its scope and extent — Societies and collections — Systematic teaching — Anthropometry — Value in identification of individuals, especially as applied to criminals — Finger-marks — Ethnographic survey — Anthropo¬ logical notes and queries — Our duty to posterity in collecting anthropological data.

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18. The Classification of the Varieties of the Human

Species. Presidential Address at the Anniversary Meeting of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 27th January 1885 . . . .

The three principal types of man — 1. Ethiopian, Negroid, Melanian, or black — 2. Mongolian, Xanthous or yellow — 3. Caucasian or white — Characteristics of each — Subdivisions — Position of the American and Australian races.

1 9. The Pygmy Races of Men. Lecture at the Royal Institu¬ tion of Great Britain, 13th April 1888

Ancient belief in pygmy races — Size a characteristic of race — The smallest existing races — Andaman Islanders — Other Negrito people in the Eastern Archipelago and Mainland — Small races of Africa — Bushmen of South Africa — Negrillos of the forest region of Central Africa — Akkas.

20. Fashion in Deformity. As illustrated in the customs of Barbarous and Civilised Races, 1880

Origin of fashion — Fashion applied to domestic animals — Fashion in hair — Finger-nails — Tattooing — Noses — Ears — Lips— Teeth — Head — Historic references — Fashion in hands and feet — Action of the foot in walking — Pointed toes — High heels — Tight lacing.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

21. Biographical Notice of Professor Rolleston. Pro¬

ceedings of the Royal Society, 1882 .

22. Biographical Notice of Sir Richard Owen. Pro¬ ceedings of the Royal Society, 1894 .

23. Reminiscences of Professor Huxley. The North American Review , September 1895

24. Eulogium on Charles Darwun. Centenary Meeting of the Linnean Society, 24th May 1888

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MUSEUMS

It is twenty-six years since this Association met in Newcastle-on -Tyne. It had then the advantage of being presided over by one of the most distinguished and popular of your fellow-townsmen.

Considering the age usually attained by those upon whom the honour of the presidency falls, and the length of time which elapses before the Association repeats its visit, it must have rarely happened that any one who has held the office is spared, not only to be present at another meeting in the town in which he has presided, but also to take such an active part in securing its success, and to extend such a hospitable welcome to his successor, as Lord Armstrong has done upon the present occasion.

The address which was delivered at that meeting must have been full of interest to the great majority of those present. It treated of many subjects more or less familiar and important to the dwellers in this part of the world, and it treated them with the hand of a master, a combination which always secures the attention of an audience.

When it came to my knowledge that in the selection of the President for this meeting the choice had fallen upon me, I was filled with apprehension. There was nothing in my previous occupations or studies from which I felt that I could evolve anything in special sympathy with what is universally recognised as the prevailing genius of this district. I was,

1 Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Newcastle-on-Tyne Meeting, 11th September 1889.

B i however, somewhat reassured when reminded that in the regular rotation by which the equal representation in the presidential office of the different branches of science included in the Association is secured, the turn had come round for some one connected with biological subjects to occupy the chair which, during the past seven years, has been filled with such distinction by engineers, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and geologists. I was also reminded that the Association, though of necessity holding its meeting in some definite locality, was by no means local in its character, but that its sphere was co-extensive, not with the United Kingdom only, but with the whole of the British Dominions, and that our proceedings are followed with interest wherever our language is understood — I may say, throughout the civilised world. Furthermore, although its great manufacturing industries, the eminence of its citizens for their skill and in¬ telligence in the practical application of mechanical sciences, and the interesting and important geological features of its vicinity, have conferred such fame on Newcastle as almost to have over-shadowed its other claims to distinction in connection with science, this neighbourhood is also associated with Bewick, with Johnson, with Alder, Embleton, Hutton, Atthey, Norman, the two Hancocks, the two Bradys, and other names honoured in the annals of biology ; it has long maintained a school of medicine of great repute ; and there has lately been established here a natural history museum, which in some of its features is a model for institutions of the kind, and which, I trust, will be a means of encouraging in this town some of the objects the Association was designed to promote.

There can be no doubt that among the various methods by which the aims of the British Association (as expressed in its full title, the advancement of science) may be brought about, the collection and preservation of objects available for examination, study, and reference — in fact, the formation of what are now called “ museums ” — is one of very great practical importance ; so much so, indeed, that it seems to me one to the consideration of which it is desirable to devote some time upon such an occasion as this. It is a subject still little understood, though, fortunately, beginning to attract

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MUSEUMS OF THE ANCIENTS attention. It has already been brought before the notice of the Association, both in presidential and sectional addresses. A committee of our members is at the present time engaged in collecting evidence upon it, and has issued some valuable reports. During the present year an association of curators and others interested in museums has been founded for the purpose of interchange of ideas upon the organisation and management of these institutions. It is a subject, moreover, if I may be allowed to mention a personal reason for bringing it forward this evening, which has, more than any other, occupied my time and my attention almost from the earliest period of my recollection, and I think you will agree with the opinion of one of my distinguished predecessors in this chair, “ that the holder of this office will generally do better by giving utterance to what has already become part of his own thought than by gathering matter outside of its habitual range for the special occasion. For,” continued Mr. Spottiswoode, “ the interest (if any) of an address consists not so much in the multitude of things therein brought forward as in the individuality of the mode in which they are treated.”

The first recorded institution which bore the name of museum, or temple or haunt of the Muses, was that founded by Ptolemy Soter at Alexandria about 300 B.c. ; but this was not a museum in our sense of the word, but rather, in accordance with its etymology, a place appropriated to the cultivation of learning, or which was frequented by a society or academy of learned men devoting themselves to philosophical studies and the improvement of knowledge.

Although certain great monarchs, as Solomon of Jerusalem and Augustus of Rome, displayed their taste and their magnificence by assembling together in their palaces curious objects brought from distant parts of the world, — although it is said that the liberality of Philip and Alexander supplied Aristotle with abundant materials for his researches, — of the existence of any permanent or public collections of natural objects among the ancients there is no record. Perhaps the nearest approach to such collections may be found in the preservation of remarkable specimens, sometimes associated with superstitious veneration, sometimes with strange legendary i stories, in the buildings devoted to religious worship. The skins of the gorillas brought by the navigator Hanno from the West Coast of Africa, and hung up in the temple at Carthage, afford a well-known instance.

With the revival of learning in the Middle Ages, the collecting instinct, inborn in so many persons of various nations and periods of history, but so long in complete abeyance, sprang into existence with considerable vigour, and a museum, now meaning a collection of miscellaneous objects, antiquities as well as natural curiosities, often associated with a gallery of sculpture and painting, became a fashionable appendage to the establishment of many wealthy persons of superior culture.

All the earliest collections, comparable to what we call museums, were formed by and maintained at the expense of private individuals ; sometimes physicians, whose studies naturally led them to a taste for biological science ; often great merchant princes, whose trading connections afforded opportunities for bringing together things that were considered curious from foreign lands ; or ruling monarchs in their private capacity. In every case they were maintained mainly for the gratification of the possessor or his personal friends, and rarely, if ever, associated with any systematic teaching or public benefit.

One of the earliest known printed catalogues of such a museum is that of Samuel Quickelberg, a physician of Amsterdam, published in 1565 in Munich. In the same year Conrad Gesner published a catalogue of the collection of Johann Kentmann, a physician of Torgau in Saxony, consist¬ ing of about 1600 objects, chiefly minerals, shells, and marine animals. Very soon afterwards we find the Emperor Rudolph II. of Germany busily accumulating treasures which con¬ stituted the foundations of the present magnificent museums by which the Austrian capital is distinguished.

In England the earliest important collectors of miscellaneous objects were the two John Tradescants, father and son, the latter of whom published, in 1656, a little work called Musceum Tradescantianum ; or, a Collection of Rarities preserved at South Lambeth , neer London. The wonderful variety and

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EARL Y MUSEUMS incongruous juxtaposition of the objects contained in this collection make the catalogue very amusing reading. Under the first division, devoted to “ Some Kindes of Birds, their Egges, Beaks, Feathers, Clawes and Spurres,” we find “ Divers sorts of Egges from Turkie, 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 Eock, who, as Authors report, is able to trusse an Elephant.” Among “ whole birds ” is the famous “ Dodar from the Island Mauritius ; it is not able to flie, being so big.” This is the identical specimen, the head and foot of which has passed through the Ashmolean into the University Museum of Oxford ; but we know not what has become of the claw of the Eock, the Phoenix tail, and the Dragon’s egg. Time does not allow me to mention the wonderful things which occur under the head of “ Garments, Vestures, Habits, and Ornaments,” or the “ Mechanick, Artificial Workes in Carvings, Turnings, Sowings, and Paintings,” from Edward the Confessor’s knit gloves, and the famous “ Pohatan, King of Virginia’s habit, all embroidered with shells or Eoanoke,” also still at Oxford, and lately figured and described by Mr. E. B. Tylor, to the “ Cherry-stone, upon one side S. George and the Dragon, perfectly cut, and on the other side 88 Emperours’ faces”; or the other “cherry-stone, holding ten dozen of tortois- shell combs made by Edward Gibbons.” But before leaving these private collections I cannot forbear mentioning, as an example of the great aid they often were in advancing science, the indebtedness of Linnaeus in his early studies to the valuable zoological museums which it was one of the ruling passions of several kings and queens of Sweden to bring together.

Upon the association of individuals together into societies to promote the advancement of knowledge, these bodies in their corporate capacity frequently made the formation of a museum part of their function. The earliest instance of this in our country was the museum of the Eoyal Society in Crane Court, of which an illustrated catalogue was published by Dr. Grew in 1681.

The idea that the maintenance of a museum was a portion i of the public duty of the State or of any municipal institution had, however, nowhere entered into the mind of man at the beginning of the last century. Even the great teaching bodies, the Universities, were slow in acquiring collections ; but it must be recollected that the subjects considered most essential to the education they then professed to give were not those which needed illustration from the objects which can be brought together in a museum. The Italian Universities, where anatomy was taught as a science earlier and more thoroughly than anywhere else in Europe, soon found the desirability of keeping collections of preserved specimens, and the art of preparing them attained a high degree of excellence at Padua and Bologna two centuries ago. But these were generally the private property of the professors, as were nearly all the collections used to illustrate the teaching of anatomy and pathology in our country within the memory of many now living.

Notwithstanding the multiplication of public museums during the present century, and the greater resources and advantages many of these possess, which private collectors cannot command, the spirit of accumulation in individuals has happily not passed away, although usually directed into rather different channels than formerly. The general museums or miscellaneous collections of old are now left to governments and institutions which afford greater guarantee of their permanence and public utility, while admirable service is done to science by those private persons with leisure and means, who, devoting themselves to some special subject, amass the materials by which its study can be pur¬ sued in detail either by themselves or by those they kmrw to be qualified to do so. Such collections, if they fulfil their most appropriate destiny, ultimately become incorporated, by gift or purchase, in one or other of the public museums, and then serve as permanent factors in the education of the nation, or rather of the world.

It would be passing beyond the limits of time allotted to this address, indeed going beyond the scope of the Association, if I were to speak of many of the subjects which have pre¬ eminently exercised the faculties of the collector and formed

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NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS the materials of which museums are constructed. The various methods by which the mind of man has been able to reproduce the forms of natural objects or to give expression to the images created by his own fancy, from the rudest scratchings of a savage on a bone, or the simplest arrangement of lines employed in ornamenting the roughest piece of pottery, up to the most lovely combinations of form and colour hitherto attained in sculpture or in painting, or in works in metal or in clay, depend altogether on museums for their preservation, for our knowledge of their condition and history in the past, and for the lessons which they can convey for the future.

Apart from the delight which the contemplation of the noblest expressions of art must produce in all cultivated minds, apart also from the curiosity and interest that must be excited by all the less successfully executed attempts to produce similar results, as materials for constructing the true history of the life of man, at different stages of civilisation, in different circumstances of living, and in divers regions of the earth, such collections are absolutely invaluable.

But I must pass them by in order to dwell more in detail upon those which specially concern the advancement of the subjects which come under the notice of this Association — museums devoted to the so-called “ natural history ” sciences, although much which will be said of them will doubtless be more or less applicable to museums in general.

The terms natural history and naturalist have become deeply rooted in our language, but without any very definite conception of their meaning or the scope of their application. Originally applied to the study of all the phenomena of the universe which are independent of the agency of man, natural history has gradually narrowed down in most people’s minds, in consequence of the invention of convenient and generally understood and accepted terms for some of its various sub¬ divisions, as astronomy, chemistry, geology, etc., into that portion of the subject which treats of the history of creatures endowed with life, for which, until lately, no special name had been invented. Even from this limitation botany was gradually disassociating itself in many quarters, and a “ naturalist ” and a “ zoologist ” have nearly become, however i irrationally, synonymous terms. The happy introduction and general acceptance of the word “ biology,” notwithstanding the objections raised to its etymological signification, have reunited the study of organisms distinguished by the possession of the living principle, and practically eliminated the now vague and indefinite term “ natural history ” from scientific terminology. As, however, it is certain to maintain its hold in popular language, I would venture to suggest the desirability of restoring it to its original and really definite signification, contrasting it with the history of man and of his works, and of the changes which have been wrought in the universe by his intervention.

It was in this sense that, when the rapid growth of the miscellaneous collections in the British Museum at Bloomsbury (the expansion of Sir Hans Sloane’s accumulation in the old Manor House at Chelsea) was thought to render a division necessary, the line of severance was effected at the junction of what was natural and what was artificial ; the former, including the products of what are commonly called “ natural ” forces, un¬ affected by man’s handiwork, or the impress of his mind. The departments which took cognisance of these were termed the “ Natural History Departments,” and the new building to which they were removed the “ Natural History Museum.”