Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume I Part 17

It was a curious irony of fate that led him into this position. He writes in his Autobiography that, when Sir Henry de la Beche, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, offered him the post Forbes vacated of Paleontologist and Lecturer on Natural History,]

I refused the former point blank, and accepted the latter only provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils, and that I should give up Natural History as soon as I could get a physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years, and a large part of my work has been paleontological.

[Yet the diversion was not without great use. A wide knowledge of paleontology offered a key to many problems that were hotly debated in the years of battle following the publication of the "Origin of Species"

in 1859, as well as providing fresh subject-matter for the lectures in which he continued to give the lay world the results of his thought.

On the administrative and official side he laid before himself the organisation of the resources of the Museum of Practical Geology as an educational instrument. This involved several years' work in the arrangement of the specimens, so as to ill.u.s.trate the paleontological lectures, and the writing of "introductions" to each section of the catalogue, which should be a guide to the students. The "Method of Paleontology" mentioned above served as the prefatory essay to the whole catalogue, and was reprinted in 1869 by the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute of Was.h.i.+ngton under the t.i.tle of "Principles and Methods of Paleontology."

This work led to his taking a lively interest in the organisation of museums in general, whether private, such as Sir Philip Egerton's, which he visited in 1856; local, such as Warwick or Chester; or central, such as the British Museum or that at Manchester.

With regard to the British Museum, the question had arisen of removing the Natural History collections from the confined s.p.a.ce and dusty surroundings of Great Russell Street. A first memorial on the subject had been signed, not only by many non-scientific persons, but also by a number of botanists, who wished to see the British Museum Herbarium, etc., combined with the more accessible and more complete collections at Kew. Owing apparently to official opposition, the Natural History sub-committee of the British Museum Trustees advised a treatment of the Botanical Department which commended itself to none of the leading botanists. Consequently a number of botanists and zoologists took counsel together and drew up a fresh memorial from the strictly scientific point of view. Huxley and Hooker took an active part in the agitation.] "It is no use," [writes the former to his friend,] "putting any faith in the old buffers, hardened as they are in trespa.s.ses and sin." [And again:--]

I see nothing for it but for you and I to const.i.tute ourselves into a permanent "Committee of Public Safety," to watch over what is being done and take measures with the advice of others when necessary...As for -- and id genus omne, I have never expected anything but opposition from them. But I don't think it is necessary to trouble one's head about such opposition. It may be annoying and troublesome, but if we are beaten by it we deserve to be. With shall have to wade through oceans of trouble and abuse, but so long as we gain our end, I care not a whistle whether the sweet voices of the scientific mob are with me or against me.

[According to Huxley's views a complete system demanded a triple museum for each subject, Zoology and Botany, since Geology was sufficiently provided for in Jermyn Street--one typical or popular, "in which all prominent forms or types of animals or plants, recent or fossil, should be so displayed as to give the public an idea of the vast extent and variety of natural objects, to diffuse a general knowledge of the results obtained by science in their investigation and cla.s.sification, and to serve as a general introduction to the student in Natural Science"; the second scientific, "in which collections of all available animals and plants and their parts, whether recent or fossil, and in a sufficient number of specimens, should be disposed conveniently for study, and to which should be exclusively attached an appropriate library, or collection of books and ill.u.s.trations relating to science, quite independent of any general library"; the third economic, "in which economic products, whether zoological or botanical, with ill.u.s.trations of the processes by which they are obtained and applied to use, should be so disposed as best to a.s.sist the progress of Commerce and the Arts."

It demanded further a Zoological and a Botanical Garden, where the living specimens could be studied.

Some of these inst.i.tutions existed, but were not under state control.

Others were already begun--e.g. that of Economic Zoology at South Kensington; but the value of the botanical collections was minimised by want of concentration, while as to zoology "the British Museum contains a magnificent collection of recent and fossil animals, the property of the state, but there is no room for its proper display and no accommodation for its proper study. Its official head reports directly neither to the Government nor to the governing body of the inst.i.tution...It is true that the people stroll through the enormous collections of the British Museum, but the sole result is that they are dazzled and confused by the multiplicity of unexplained objects, and the man of science is deprived thrice a week of the means of advancing knowledge."

The agitation of 1859-60 bore fruit in due season, and within twenty years the ideal here sketched was to a great extent realised, as any visitor to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington can see for himself.

The same principles are reiterated in his letter of January 25, 1868, to the Commissioners of the Manchester Natural History Society, who had asked his advice as to the erection of a museum. But to the principles he adds a number of most practical suggestions as to the actual structure of the building, which are briefly appended in abstract. The complement to this is a letter of 1872, giving advice as to a local museum at Chester, and one of 1859 describing the ideal catalogue for a geological museum.]

January 25, 1868.

The Commissioners of the Manchester Natural History Society.

SCHEME FOR A MUSEUM.

OBJECTS.

1. The public exhibition of a collection of specimens large enough to ill.u.s.trate all the most important truths of Natural History, but not so extensive as to weary and confuse ordinary visitors.

2. The accessibility of this collection to the public.

3. The conservation of all specimens not necessary for the purpose defined in Paragraph 1 in a place apart.

4. The accessibility of all objects contained in the museum to the curator and to scientific students, without interference with the public or by the public.

5. Thorough exclusion of dust and dirt from the specimens.

6. A provision of s.p.a.ce for workrooms, and, if need be, lecture-rooms.

PRINCIPLE.

A big hall (350 x 40 x 30) with narrower halls on either side, lighted from the top. The central hall for the public, the others for the curators, etc. The walls, of arches upon piers about 15 feet high, bearing on girders a gallery 5 feet wide in the public room, and 3 feet 6 inches in the curators'.

The cases should be larger below, 5 feet deep, and smaller above, 2 feet deep, with gla.s.s fronts to the public, and doors on the curators' side.

For very large specimens--e.g. a whale--the case could expand into the curators' part without encroaching on the public part, so as to keep the line of windows regular.

Specimens of the Vertebrata, ill.u.s.trations of Physical Geography and Stratigraphical Geology, should be placed below.

The Invertebrata, Botanical and Mineralogical specimens in the galleries.

The part.i.tion to be continued above the galleries to the roof, thus excluding all the dust raised by the public.

s.p.a.ce for students should be provided in the curators' rooms.

Storage should be AMPLE.

A museum of this size gives twice as much area for exhibition purposes as that offered by ALL the cases in the present museum.

Athenaeum Club, December 8, 1872.

Dear Sir,

I regret that your letter has but just come into my hands, so that my reply cannot be in time for your meeting, which, I understand you to say, was to be held yesterday.

I have no hesitation whatever in expressing the opinion that, except in the case of large and wealthy towns (and even in their case primarily), a Local Museum should be exactly what its name implies, namely "Local"--ill.u.s.trating local Geology, local Botany, local Zoology, and local Archaeology.

Such a museum, if residents who are interested in these sciences take proper pains, may be brought to a great degree of perfection and be unique of its kind. It will tell both natives and strangers exactly what they want to know, and possess great scientific interest and importance.

Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from New Zealand, Hindoo idols, sharks' teeth, mangy monkeys, scorpions, and conch sh.e.l.ls--who shall describe the weary inutility of it? It is really worse than nothing, because it leads the unwary to look for the objects of science elsewhere than under their noses. What they want to know is that their "America is here," as Wilhelm Meister has it.

Yours faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

Alfred Walker, Esq., Nant-y-Glyn, Colwyn Bay.

TO THE REVEREND P. BRODIE OF WARWICK.

Jermyn Street, October 14, 1859.

My dear Mr. Brodie,

I am sorry to say that I can as yet send you no catalogue of ours. The remodelling of our museum is only just completed, and only the introductory part of my catalogue is written. When it is printed you shall have an early copy.

If I may make a suggestion I should say that a catalogue of your museum for popular use should commence with a sketch of the topography and stratigraphy of the county, put into the most intelligible language, and ill.u.s.trated by reference to mineral specimens in the cases, and to the localities where sections showing the superposition of such and such beds is to be seen. After that I think should come a list of the most remarkable and interesting fossils, with reference to the cases where they are to be seen; and under the head of each a brief popular account of the kind of animal or plant which the thing was when alive, its probable habits, and its meaning and importance as a member of the great series of successive forms of life.

Yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

[The reorganisation of the course of studies at Jermyn Street, fully sketched out in the 1857 notebook, involved two very serious additions to his work over and above what was required of him by his appointment as Professor. He found his students to a great extent lacking in the knowledge of general principles necessary to the comprehension of the special work before them. To enable them to make the best use of his regular lectures, he offered them in addition a preliminary evening course of nine lectures each January, which he ent.i.tled "An Introduction to the Study of the Collection of Fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology." These lectures summed up what he afterwards named Physiography, together with a general sketch of fossils and their nature, the cla.s.sification of animals and plants, their distribution at various epochs, and the principles on which they are constructed, ill.u.s.trated by the examination of some animal, such as a lobster.

The regular lectures, fifty-seven in number, ran from February to April and from April to June, with fortnightly examinations during the latter period, six in number. I take the scheme from his notebook:--] "After prolegomena, the physiology and morphology of lobster and dove; then through Invertebrates, Anodon, Actinia, and Vorticella Protozoa, to Molluscan types. Insects, then Vertebrates. Supplemented Paleontologically by the demonstrations of the selected types in the cases; twelve Paleozoic, twelve Mesozoic and Cainozoic," [by his a.s.sistants.] "To make the course complete there should be added