Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/145

 io<>> s. in. FEB. 11, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

117

century, "delighted him beyond words. 1 ' Everything he saw in London appeared to delight him, and he is quite as enthusiastic over the wonders of Madame Tussaud's as he is over the Tower and Westminster Abbey. Panoramas and such-like exhibitions which delighted our fathers have passed away, but I doubt whether there are so many exhibi- tions really suitable for children now as there were fifty years ago. One wonders what has taken the place of the good old Polytechnic and similar institutions, which were the delight of our childhood.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Mtxitms. their History and (heir Use. By David Murray, LL.D., F.S.A. 3 vols. (Glasgow, Mac- Lehose & Sons.)

DR. MURRAY'S excellent work on museums grew, we are told, out of a presidential address delivered by him in the winter of 1897 before the Glasgow Archaeological Society. In the course of the studies pursued with a view to the preparation of this, the author discovered that, though a considerable literature on the subject was in existence, information concerning the history and develop- ment of museums as scientific institutions was with difficulty to be found in ordinary works of reference. On the shortcomings of works of this class he insists ; and the investigations we have personally conducted have convinced us of the justice of his complaint, not only as regards this country, but also so far as concerns France. After some tentative efforts, the results of which were not, as he confesses, wholly satisfactory, he began the labours which have resulted in the present volumes. The product is, in the first place, a "bibliography of bibliographies," a work the im- portance of which is gradually being grasped. Much space is accorded to the subject of museo- graphy. With books on the practical working of museums, " the collection, preparation, and pre- servation of specimens : their registration and exhibition," Dr. Murray actively concerns himself, prefixing to the section a short subject -biblio- graphy. The second and third volumes are largely made up of details as to catalogues and other works relating to particular museums and special collections. Museums which have issued no cata- logues, or of which no description has been put forth, do not appear. Allowance being made for the limitations and restrictions thus imposed, the information supplied is of remarkable utility to a large class of readers, and the history is a work of great labour and erudition.

In the collections will be found the most useful and valuable portion of the work, and that which will most commend it to the antiquary and the scholar. To the general reader, however, its intro- ductory chapters are a mine of delightful informa- tion, and few works of modern days contain more that will interest and stimulate our readers. Passing over with brief mention the great institu- tion at Alexandria, founded in the third century before Christ by Ptolemy Philadelphia, and chro-

nicling the waggery of Neickelius, scarcely intended as such, in his ' Museographia,' that the most com- plete museum of natural history that the world has seen was Noah's Ark, Dr. Murray points to temples and great ecclesiastical edifices as the homes of what we will simply call curiosities. In Milan, says Addison, were relics reaching to the time of Abraham. Hair from the beard of Noah was pre- served at Corbie. Moses's brazen serpent is still shown in the nave of San Ambrogio in Milan. Pliny mentions the bones of the monster to which Andro- meda was exposed as being in his time in Rome. Every church had its treasury, most of which con- tained relics, and many of the most beautiful objects which now adorn our museums belonged at one time to churches. The Renaissance was, of course, a great period for collecting, and the discovery of America and the establishment of missions among the heathen did much to encourage the preserva- tion of rarities and curiosities. Some eminently interesting pages are devoted to the first collectors, from Henry Cornelius Agrippa de Nettesheim, the cabalist, downwards. George Agrippa (Bauer), the father of mineralogy, \yas the means of inducing Augustus of Saxony to fill cabinets which developed into the Royal Collection of Dresden. Andrea Cesalpini formed in the sixteenth century a her- barium, still preserved in Florence. Catalogues of curiosities were printed so early as the middle of the sixteenth century. One of the most interesting of these in English is that of the rarities in the Univer- sity of Leyden, 1591 (qy. 1691 ?). Among the objects catalogued is the skin of a man dressed as parch- ment. In the museum of the Royal Society of London there was a bone said to be taken from the head of a mermaid. Unicorns' horns were in great estimation and commanded a high price. Giants' bones were common, and a portion, at least, of a mummy was indispensable in every museum of any pretension. We might continue for ever ex- tracting from Dr. Murray's interesting pages. Of the origin of the British Museum a full account is naturally given, and we have, as might be expected, something about the Hunterian and Kelvingrove Museums in Glasgow, the_ former owing much to Capt. Cook, the latter to Livingstone. The arrange- ment of the catalogues, &c., relating to particular museums is under names of places, some twenty pages being devoted to London. It is quite impos- sible to do full justice to the many aspects of a work which we warmly commend to our readers. Nothing in its line more valuable and serviceable is to be found.

The Cambridge Modern History. Edited by A. W. Ward, Litt.D., G. W. Prothero, Litt.D., and Stanley Leathes, M.A. Vol. III. (Cambridge, University Press.)

THE third volume of ' The Cambridge Modern History,' planned by Lord Acton and directed and executed by the principal living historians, deals with the great and enduring schism which divides the Christian world into Protestant and Catholic. The end of this is not yet in sight, though the field of battle and the nature of the combat are changed, and a chance exists that those so lately the bitterest of antagonists may coalesce in resisting what they now regard as their joint enemy. Against the supposition of such rapprochement may be advanced the fact that no alliance of the kind was formed in presence of the persistent, and at one time eminently menacing advance of the Ottoman