Directory
1. Kartu-BRB (M) Sdn. Bhd.
2. Southdene Sdn. Bhd.
3. The Moths of Borneo by J.D. Holloway
4. Booklist
5. The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
6. Malaysian Nature Society
7. Friends of the Natural History Museum.
Kartu-BRB (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Company No. 209340 T
Librairie Française en Malaisie
La meilleure librairie en Asie du Sud-Est
L’Agenda, 52 Persiaran 65C, off Jalan Pahang Barat,
Pekeliling Business Centre, 53000 Kuala Lumpur.
P.O. Box 10139, 50704 Kuala Lumpur
Tel. 603-40245168 Fax 603-40234090
E-mail: andremb@pc.jaring.my
Southdene Sdn. Bhd.
Company No. 92271-D
P.O. Box 10139, 50704 Kuala Lumpur
Tel. 603-40222653 Fax 603-40222267
E-mail: hsbar@pc.jaring.my
Website: http://www.edi.co.uk/barlow
THE MOTHS OF BORNEO
We are pleased to advise that Dr J D Holloway’s ‘The Moths of Borneo’, joint Parts 15 &
16, Noctuidae: Catocalinae, 529 pp., 154 pp. b & w photos, 28 colour plates, in laminated
card is promised for delivery on 7 September 2005. Work is in hand on Part 17, Noctuidae:
Hypeninae & Herminiinae due out in late 2006.
Costs are given below:
The Moths of Borneo by J D Holloway
per copy (including surface mail overseas)
RM RM RM US$ £ A$
(p&p)
Part 1 50 15 65 22 15 29 (Reprint)
Part 3 60 15 75 30 20 40 (Reprint)
Part 4 40 15 55 22 15 29
Part 5 60 15 75 30 20 40
Part 6 40 15 55 22 15 29
Part 7 75 20 95 38 25 50
Part 8 60 15 75 30 20 40
Part 9 50 15 65 26 18 34
Part 10 60 15 75 30 20 40
Part 11 75 20 95 38 25 50
Part 12 40 15 55 22 15 29
Part 14 40 15 55 22 15 29
Parts 15&16 150 40 195 65 35 82
Part 18 75 20 95 38 25 50
THE MOTHS OF BORNEO
The current position is as follows:
Family Spp. Plates Part Publication
Actual No. Date
(Est.)
Cossidae 34
Metarbelidae 5
Ratardidae 3
Dudgeoneidae 2 9 1 1986 R
Epipyropidae 1
Limacodidae 95
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zygaenidae (40) 4 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sphingidae 94
Bombycidae 15
Brahmaeidae 1
Saturniidae 22 20 3 1987 R
Eupterotidae 15
Lasiocampidae 62
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notodontidae 123 9 4 1983
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lymantriidae 297 12 5 1999
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arctiidae:
Syntominae 55
Euchromiinae 2
Arctiinae 40
Noctuidae:
Aganainae 16 6 6 1988
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arctiidae:
Lithosiinae 298 8 7 2001
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Castniidae 1
Callidulidae 7 6 8 1998
Drepanidae 108
Uraniidae 90
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MOTHS OF BORNEO
The current position is as follows:
Family Spp. Plates Part Publication
Actual No. Date
(Est.)
Geometridae:
Oenochrominae 6
Desmobathrinae 45
Geometrinae 218
Orthostixinae 2 12 9 1996
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sterrhinae 176
Larentiinae 199 12 10 1997
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ennominae 433 19 11 1993[4]
Noctuidae:
Noctuinae 11
Heliothinae 2
Hadeninae 32
Amphipyrinae 121
Acronictinae 7
Agaristinae 14 8 12 1989
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acontiinae (300) 10 13 *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eutelinae 73
Stictopterinae 89
Plusiinae 15
Pantheinae 3 8 14 1985
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ophiderinae (580) 28 15 & 16 **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hypeninae
Herminiinae (170) 9 17
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nolidae 393 10 18 2003
_____
Total 4,315
====
Summary
Borneo species covered so far 4,315
Estimated number of Borneo species in
groups not yet covered 1,090
Total actual & estimated species in all the
above families occurring in Borneo 5,405
====
* Planned to be the next issue
** In proof
R. Reprint now available
It is not at present possible to give a firm timetable or accurate order of appearance for the remaining parts,
but provisionally these are planned as indicated above, at the rate of one part per year. For the same reason
it is not possible to offer a full subscription price. Parts will be advertised separately in due course.
If you wish to receive details of additional parts to be published in this series, please contact:
Southdene Sdn. Bhd.
P O Box 10139
50704 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: +603 40222653 Fax: +603 40222267 E-mail: hsbar@pc.jaring.my
or : hsbar@tm.net.my
BOOKLIST
NEW
Mealybugs of Southern Asia by D J Williams. 2004. 905 pp. of text and immaculate large
scale b & w drawings. Hardcover. Price RM210 (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei). N.
America airmail US$88, seamail US$62, EU/UK Airmail £45, seamail £36, Japan airmail
US$77 seamail US$66, Australia airmail A$98 seamail A$86, India airmail £43 US$73,
seamail £35 US$62. Non-Malaysian seamail prices include surface mail, unregistered and very slow.
We also have in stock the following:
Hostplants of the moth and butterfly caterpillars of the Oriental Region by Gaden S
Robinson, Philip R Ackery, Ian J Kitching, George W Beccaloni and Luis M Hernandez.
Hardcover, 744 pp. 2001. RM165 + RM25 p & p = RM190, US$55, £35, A$96. Non
Malaysian prices inclusive of surface mail, unregistered and very slow.
An Introduction to the Spiders of South East Asia by Frances & John Murphy, over 600
pp. 32 col. pl., 8 superb photos per plate, numerous outstanding new line drawings by
M. Roberts, and other line drawings reproduced from earlier, hard to locate periodicals.
Hb.
Per copy including p & p within Malaysia/Singapore RM100
Per copy including p & p overseas (surface mail) RM152
US$40
£28
A$75
Paul D Brock Stick and Leaf-Insects of Peninsular Malaysia &
Singapore , over 200 pp. 10 pages of col. plates and several black & white plates. Pb.
£15.
Corbet & Pendlebury The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, 4th ed. revised by
J.N. Eliot, 1992 595 pp. 63 col. pl., 6 b&w: RM110 +30 = RM140, US$56, £35,
A$73.
A Field Guide to the Smaller Moths of South East Asia by G. Robinson, M. Shaffer
& K. Tuck, 246 pp., 32 col. pl., 1994. RM65 + 10 = RM75, US$30,£18.50,
A$43.
Macmillan’s Tropical Planting and Gardening, revised edition by H.S. Barlow,
R. Russell & I. Enoch, 1991, 767 pp, many b & w photos. RM95 + 25 = RM120,
US$48, £30, A$63.
Swettenham by H.S. Barlow, 783 pp., 64 pp. b & w plates, 1995. RM120 + 20 = RM140,
US$56, £35, A$74.
An Introduction to the Moths of South East Asia by H.S. Barlow, with taxonomic
appendix by Dr J D Holloway, 305 pp., 50 col. pl. 1982. RM70 + 20 = RM90,
US$36, £22, A$47.
Remittances in £, US$ payable to H.S. Barlow. If you are paying in A$, please make your remittance
payable to Northdene Pty Ltd., and in all cases forward to the above address. Books will be sent only
on receipt of remittance. We only accept payment from overseas in £, US$ or A$. Please contact us if
you wish to pay in Euros.
Prices are subject to change without notice, and books are sent surface mail at buyers risk. We will
however do our best to follow up any which fail to arrive.
For further books on the natural history of Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and membership details, consult
* Malaysian Nature Society, P.O. Box 10750, 50724 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel. 603-22873304 Fax. 603-22878773 E-mail: natsoc@po.jaring.my
Website: www.mns.com.my/mns
For further books on the history of Malaysia and the surrounding region contact
* The Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 130M
(Mezzanine Floor), Jalan Thamby Abdullah, Off Jalan Tun Sambanthan
(Brickfields), 50470 Kuala Lumpur. Tel. 603-22748345 Fax 603-
22743458. Email: mbras@tm.net.my
Website with list of publications: www.mbras.org.my
The Friends of the Natural History Museum is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. It is independent
from the Natural History Museum (NHM) and supports the Museum’s objectives, and in particular its commitment to
maintain and foster study of its unique collection of 68 million natural history specimens.
In the last few years it has contributed almost £100,000 to various NHM projects.
FRIENDS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
JUNE 2006 NEWSLETTER
Views expressed in this Newsletter should not be taken to reflect those of the Trustees or the Directorate of the Natural History Museum (See Change, p. 2)
DARWIN CENTRE PHASE 2
The biological collections of The Natural History Museum: a unique resource; a unique opportunity. Will we
squander it?
The collections and associated libraries of The Natural History Museum (NHM) represent the most important
repository of knowledge of the diversity of living organisms with which we share the planet. The question
in the subtitle of this paper and those posed at the end articulate concern felt by many diverse stakeholders
outside the museum and, unofficially, a significant proportion of researchers and curators within it for the
long term future for this repository.
The collections have been accumulated over the past two centuries through the innate curiosity and urge to explore
and engage with the world, of the British people, coupled with a talent for analysis and understanding, perhaps
epitomized in different ways by Joseph Banks, Joseph Hooker, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. The explorers
were supported by a strong cadre of taxonomists dedicated to the science of biosystematics: curators, classifiers and
describers, both professional and amateur, who published on the inflow of discoveries and returned this information to
the world in the form of papers and books. These in turn provided a foundation for discoveries in the fields of evolution,
biodiversity, biogeography and ecology, and acted as support for the needs of agriculture, forestry, medical science and
conservation. The four scientists mentioned covered the breadth of these fields, with at least the first having significant
political influence.
As Empire metamorphosed into Commonwealth, this tradition of service to the world through exploration and research
has been maintained from British institutions such as NHM and the RBGs of Kew and Edinburgh, and ones such as CAB
International that stemmed from the practical needs of the countries that now form the Commonwealth, particularly
in Africa, Asia and Australasia. These institutions are the only ones that maintain such services in support of
inventory and development, coupled with good husbandry, of natural resources throughout the world, but particularly
in developing countries where indigenous capabilities may be rudimentary. The NHM is by far the most important of these
institutions for zoology, particularly entomology.
Taxonomy is, above all, a comparative science, placing organisms in a hierarchic system that reflects as far as possible
their interrelationships through the evolutionary process, and this is critical for our understanding of their biological
properties, many of which will be beneficial or harmful to humanity. Therefore, the largely serendipitous concentration of
such a vast amount of biological material from all over the world in London is a great boon to the development, through
taxonomy, of our understanding of the diversity of life on earth, how it developed, how it is maintained, and how best to
preserve it for future generations. There is much work still do be done, building on the solid foundations already laid.
The NHM and RBG Kew have made London the focus for an international network of taxonomic specialists, greatly facilitated
now by the internet, exchanging information and material, and collaborating on a wide range of taxonomic projects. Such
overseas scientists are thus major stakeholders in the collections of NHM, as these often contain material drawn extensively
from their own countries. It is therefore essential to maintain and enhance these connections, and the reciprocal goodwill
they enshrine, to honour international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity. RBG Kew are leading the way
through their Millennium Seed Bank programme, a vigorous international outreach policy and their consequent acquisition of
International Heritage Status, the awarding of which is dependent on significant support from a wide international constituency.
The NHM is currently engaged in a major redevelopment to rehouse the collections in better environmental conditions that ensure
their long term future, and to provide facilities for curatorial and research staff that come up to modern standards. However,
the building design now accepted for housing the insect and flowering plant collections falls far short of the minimum requirements
originally set out for tendering architects, in that the space available in the new building for collections would have to be increased
by roughly 30% to meet those requirements (which included only a modest capacity for expansion of 10%). There is also a significant
shortfall in space allocated for staff, most of it open-plan, with heavy reliance on artificial illumination. The new building is thus
not fit-for-purpose.
The staff complement is currently heavily skewed away from youth but towards experience. A recruitment drive in progress focuses, perhaps
understandably because of the better prospects for attracting external funding, on the more esoteric aspects of biosystematics that can be
done as well in universities; these will contribute little to the development of the collections and improvement of access to information
within them through the labour-intensive basic taxonomic activities of curation, description, classification and publication. The collections
and these more traditional activities are uniquely interdependent; they are also complementary to the more esoteric aspects.
The following questions arise:
Is it too late to halt construction of the current Darwin Centre 2 building and commission one of a design that is truly fit for decades
of use (which also prompts the question of how the current design was selected when it did not meet the minimum requirements of the brief)?
Is DCMS the most appropriate government department to have charge of a resource of such major international scientific importance,
science that underpins so much of our long term management of the natural resources of the planet?
Why is there so rarely anyone with hands-on experience of biosystematic research appointed to the Board of Trustees?
Should there be an international panel of scientists with experience of biosystematics to advise NHM Trustees and Directorate? Should
this also include representatives of the international user community (e.g. IUCN, FAO etc.)?
Is there any means within a national, European (e.g. the European Dispersed Institute of Taxonomy - EDIT), or international framework
whereby resources can be assured that will allow the continued development and exploitation of these unique collections for the
benefit of all mankind, with British scientists continuing their tradition of punching above their weight in fundamental collections-based
taxonomic research?
If the answer to the final question at least is negative, Britain may be judged to have abrogated a significant component of its
responsibilities under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the world may mourn the passing of a proud tradition.
CHANGE
Friends will have noticed that in addition to a delay in production of this issue of the Newsletter (for which the Editor apologises)
there have been significant changes to the masthead.
These have arisen from a letter by the Director of NHM to the Friends of 18 May 2006 expressing concern that The Friends Newsletter on
occasions has been critical of NHM policy. There has also been confusion among the Trustees about FNHM’s status.
At a meeting held in the Director’s office at NHM on 24 August 2006 it was therefore agreed to ensure the Friends’ independence:
1. That the official NHM logo should be removed from FNHM Newsletter masthead.
2. The statement which appears in this issue below the masthead should be inserted.
3. The registered office would be elsewhere.
4. Friends would continue to be able to arrange meetings and visits to NHM as before.
5. A statement would appear on the NHM & Friends’ websites as follows:
The Friends of the Natural History Museum is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. It is independent from the
Natural History Museum (NHM) and supports the Museum’s objectives, and in particular its commitment to maintain and foster study
of its unique collection of 68 million natural history specimens.
In the last few years it has contributed almost £100,000 to various NHM projects.
Friends will be aware from the front page article of this issue and from the minutes of the latest AGM which appear below in this
issue, of concern which has been expressed over the Darwin Centre Phase 2.
MINUTES
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM HELD ON
WEDNESDAY 17 MAY 2006 AT 1.15 P.M.AT DOWN HOUSE, DOWNE, KENT
Present : Prof Eric Moonman (Chair)
15 Friends
12 Proxies
1. Apologies for absence were received from Lord Oxburgh, Sir Walter Bodmer, Miss A Carritt, Miss C Dear, Mrs E Robertson,
Miss A E Barlow, Dr Peter Adams, Dame Pam Gilbert, Mr P J Wortley and Mrs J Hogarth-Scott.
2. Minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 May 2005 at 1.30 p.m. at the Walter Rothschild Museum, Tring, were considered.
Approval of the minutes was proposed by Mr Eric Taylor, seconded by Dr Klaus Sattler.
3. Matters arising.
(i) It was reported that discussions with the Institute of Biology had been concluded, on the basis that there was no scope
at present for significant cooperation.
(ii) The question of a coffee morning at NHM was raised. Prof. Moonman undertook to assist in arranging for such a meeting
on a trial basis. It was felt that if Friends were encouraged to bring visitors, this might be a means of recruiting new Friends.
It would be desirable to discuss with NHM the possibility of free or reduced access to NHM’s special exhibitions.
4. Prof. Moonman reported on the activities of The Friends in the year to 31 March 2006. On 19 October 2005 Dr Quentin Wheeler
had given a talk on his vision for the future of entomology in NHM. Unfortunately Dr Wheeler’s resignation has just been announced
(early May 2006).
On Thursday 19 January 2006 a group of Friends visited the Hunterian Museum at the premises of The Royal College of Surgeons at Lincoln’s
Inn, and were given a fascinating tour of the recently renovated Museum by Stella Mason. Many of John Hunter’s ideas were incorporated by
Darwin in his work 100 years later.
Prof. Moonman invited Mr H.S. Barlow to report on concerns that had been raised over the proposed Darwin Centre Phase 2 Building.
Mr Barlow reported that all but the foundations of the old Entomology Building had now been demolished. An exchange of letters with
Dr Michael Dixon, Director of NHM had in no way alleviated concern both about the proposed DC2 building and the direction of taxonomy
in the Dept. of Entomology generally. Since then, using material made available under the Freedom of Information Act, it had been
ascertained that in 2001 it was estimated that 4.6 km of linear of storage space 2.5 m high was required to house the entomology and
botany departments in the new building with a 10% growth allowance. However in 2004 in TQ 04/31 Appendix 1 – Darwin Centre Phase 2 –
note on fit for purpose it is noted in respect of the Botany & Entomology collections, that the new proposed design “Accommodates all
Entomology collections and all flowering plants in over 3.4 km of cabinets 2.5 m high (with the exception of spirit material in DC1 and
small amount of ‘supplementary’ Lepidoptera off site.” The context in which this is cited suggests that the 3.4 km of linear storage space
was perfectly adequate. This is a serious discrepancy. If the new building is constructed to these dimensions, let alone incorporating
various unsatisfactory features of the proposed internal design (e.g. lack of natural light in work places) this could seriously prejudice
the long term future of entomology, and in particular taxonomy and systematics in NHM. It was agreed therefore to seek further clarification
from Dr Dixon on whether there was any explanation for this discrepancy, before deciding on further steps.
Prof. Moonman commented on the Newsletter, and suggestions were made for possible improvements – especially the b & w photos. Consideration
might be given to biographical profiles of leading NHM figures, or those retired but still active. Mr Barlow asked for volunteers to
undertake reviews and to write other articles for publication in the Newsletter. Prof. Moonman proposed, and it was unanimously agreed that
a warm vote of thanks be recorded to Mr Barlow for his work in maintaining the publication of the Newsletter.
Forthcoming Events
Tuesday, 10 October. Talk by Dr Andrew Polascek, Executive Secretary of ICZN, on the activities of the International Commission
on Zoological Nomenclature. ‘Sense and Nonsense in Animal Nomenclature.’
Mid-January 2007. Talk/visit to be arranged.
BOOK REVIEW
The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life & Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore. Pp. i-xiii, 1-482. Bantam
Press (part of The Random House Group Ltd.) ISDN 0593 052099. £18.99.
Friends who participated in the recent highly successful visit to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in January
this year may have missed the above volume which was discreetly on sale on the premises.
It provides a gripping and fascinating insight into the early days (in the late 18th century) of the medical profession in London,
as seen through the eyes and activities of John Hunter, after whom the Hunterian Museum was named.
John Hunter was one of a number of children born to a moderately prosperous Scottish farmer from Ayrshire. His elder brother
William headed off to London to study anatomy in 1740. In 1748 John Hunter, having no aptitude for books or formal study, joined him,
initially acting as assistant demonstrator for his brother’s increasingly popular anatomy classes.
By this time the traditional medieval association between barbers and surgeons was breaking down. There remained a strong traditional
element among surgeons at the time, who accepted as correct without questioning the teachings derived from the Greek & Latin classics.
However a more questioning element was creeping into the profession. The Hunter brothers were at the head of this group in London.
For anatomy classes it was necessary to secure a supply of human cadavers. These were not easily, or at least legally, to be had.
There thus developed a brisk underground trade in corpses of all sorts and types. The book gives a series of gripping accounts of
how Hunter’s class was supplied. Many were simply dug up at dead of night after burial. The corpse was unceremoniously stuffed
into a sack and discreetly delivered to the back door of the anatomy establishment for a suitable fee. Another welcome source of
corpses was from the gibbets after a public hanging. Corpses thus acquired had the advantage, generally, of being from individuals
in good health at the time of their death.
There can be little doubt that in his early years in and around Covent Garden, John Hunter was active in grave-robbing and other
measures to secure corpses for dissection at his brother’s anatomy classes. However whereas his brother, a competent anatomist,
was not consumed by a natural curiousity to investigate further, John Hunter was rapidly gripped by a passion for independent
investigation which marked him for life, and led him to becoming in due course the foremost anatomist and surgeon in the country,
and arguably in the Europe of his time.
Nor was the young Hunter’s curiosity confined to humans. Any other animal was of interest, and Hunter rapidly acquired an
enormous collection of pickled specimens and skeletons, including that of a giraffe, fishes, whales: in fact a whole menagerie
of dead animals or parts thereof. Nor were these simply regarded as a ‘cabinet of curiosities’, so popular at the time.
They were used by Hunter to illustrate the interrelationships between all living things. Indeed the ideas which the fanatic
and indefatigable Hunter developed were eventually published, after Hunter’s death, by his brother-in-law and erstwhile student
Everard Home. Most if not all the material was plagiarized from Hunter’s notes. Finally Home burnt all his brother-in-law’s
papers, to prevent, as far as possible, anyone tracing his deception. Everard Home’s writings were later in the nineteenth
century drawn on extensively by Charles Darwin in his The Descent of Man.
As the careers of the Hunter brothers developed, they gradually drifted apart – William to the bright lights of London’s social
world, while John continued his researches with feverish enthusiasm. For his own research he became more discriminating and
demanding in the types of corpses he wished to dissect: women at various stages of pregnancy were particularly valuable, as
they enabled him to study foetal development, and in particular the ways in which the nerve and blood circulation systems developed.
Nor was he above keeping a close eye on the still living, with a view to acquiring the corpse in due course. The most famous
example was the Irish giant, Charles Byrne, whose height initially made him a person of great interest to the many Londoners
attracted to shows of physical freaks of all kinds. As Byrne’s popularity dwindled, he took to drink, and a justifiable fear
that anatomists would seize his corpse. With the assistance of a somewhat disreputable intermediary, and the application of
copious alcohol at the funeral wake of the unhappy Byrne, John Hunter got his prize. The skeleton is one of the most striking
exhibits now at the museum.
Hunter’s official career was dogged by professional rows with his less enlightened contemporaries, who despised his new-fangled
scientific approach to the study of anatomy. However he duly served in St George’s Hospital, with distinction, and at one time,
as a means of gaining experience enlisted as an army surgeon for two years in Portugal. This gave him valuable, if gory
experience in patching up soldiers wounded by gunfire. The conditions of course were appalling in terms of filth and total
lack of sanitation. Many victims thus died of gangrene, at a time when the value of cleanliness and disinfectants was completely
unknown.
Shortly after Hunter returned from his stint as army surgeon, he married Anne Home, the daughter of one of his military patients,
herself an intellectual and accomplished society hostess. His income from an increasingly large following of patients enabled
him to buy large houses both in fashionably rural Earls Court, and adjacent to what is now Leicester Square. His town house,
effectively two houses converted into one served as a salon for his wife’s soirées, while out at the back Hunter, or frequently
his apprentices, continued to give courses in anatomy. The back doors were still opened at the dead of night to receive, discreetly,
a supply of corpses for the lessons, or the bodies of exotic animals which Hunter collected for his own studies. Their skeletons
adorned the town house, and when he ran out of space there, they were transferred to Earls Court, in the grounds of which Hunter
maintained a small menagerie of exotic animals.
As Hunter’s fame and reputation grew, he was consulted by all classes of society, from the Royal family, to the poorest beggar
(the latter treated for free.) He rapidly learned to avoid operating wherever possible. The creation of wounds with unsterilized
knives only too often allowed fatal infections to develop.
Such was his distinction that towards the end of his life, he was appointed surgeon-general in the army. He used this opportunity
to establish a fair and progressive career ladder for all surgical appointments.
When, three years later, he died, essentially of overwork, and a stroke brought on by vicious infighting amongst colleagues at
St George’s Hospital, it fell to one of his youngest apprentices, William Clift to preserve the work of his master against the depradations
and plagiarism of his brother-in-law Everard Home.
Wendy Moore’s book gives a thrilling account of the life and times of late eighteenth century London, and of the singular contribution by
a young, uneducated Scottish country boy to the development of medicine, surgery and the study of natural history at that time.
The Value of Our Collections
Quentin Wheeler, as Keeper of Entomology, in his Departmental Report for the year ending 31 March 2006 has issued a rousing call on behalf
of all the collections, not just entomological, in the NHM’s custody. This call could not have come at a better time. He writes:
“Expanding human populations, increasing frequent episodes of invasive species and emerging diseases, escalating needs for effective
conservation policies and rapidly changing ecosytems combine to magnify the importance of our collections to science and society.
The biodiversity crisis makes the work of developing the collections and maintaining access to them most urgent. Much of what
we fail to learn about earth’s insect fauna now will simply never be known; most of what we ever know of the evolution of the most
successful living taxon is or will be contained in natural history collections like ours. Today, more than at any time in history,
is the age of natural history museums when we build a legacy of evidence of biological diversity for problem solving and posterity.
No scientific project could be of greater practical consequence nor nobler cause than ours. “
Later, he continues, impassioned: “The incredible strength of our department is that it is the only well-curated, easily-accessed,
comprehensive collection in the world where a scientist can compare side by side more than half of all known insect species.
Unless we grow in an aggressive and carefully directed way, we will become a mere historical curiosity cabinet rather than
a superb research infrastructure. The same dismal fate is tempted by the dearth of taxonomic research in the United Kingdom
(and world). Caring for collections means both meeting the physical care required by delicate specimens but equally caring
for the credibility of information associated with those specimens. Without accurate, tested and corroborated species hypotheses
and application of those hypotheses to names on drawers and cabinets, the collections lose most of their scientific worth.
Without accurate, tested and corroborated cladistic hypotheses about the relationships among species and the reflection of that
knowledge in the curation of the collections, the collections lose most of their scientific worth. That universities have abdicated
their role in educating taxonomists is tragic. It is far worse that the traditional leaders in taxonomic research – in the hard work
of taxonomic revisions, monographs, and faunas – are no longer leading. Museums are the logical leaders because the collection
infrastructure makes such projects far more efficient than is possible on any university campus. Taxonomy is so fundamentally essential
to credible biological knowledge and solving environmental problems (from a simple ID of a potential pest in a corn field to unraveling
the intricacies of complex ecosystems) that it will either be rebuilt now or, at much greater expense and effort, at some future date.
We can either be leaders and assure that the knowledge the world needs exists or we can wait for some taxonomic train-wreck that awakens
society to its shameful neglect of its collections information content and of the science that provides and tests that content.”
It would be hard to spell out more succinctly than Dr Wheeler has done the overwhelming importance of these collections, not just
to UK but to the world.
By implication a greater degree of commitment than has been seen in recent years is now required to ensure their continuing value to
future generations.
The misfortune is that Dr Wheeler resigned his job with effect from 30 June 2006 and returned to U.S.A.
FRIENDS’ CONTRIBUTION TO NHM
Up to 31 March 2000 we recorded total contributions of about £42,000 to The Natural History Museum.
Since then we have made available to various NHM projects the following amounts:
For y.e. 31 March 2001 £4,875
For y.e. 31 March 2002 £6,825
For y.e. 31 March 2003 £4,500
For y.e. 31 March 2004 £6,500
For y.e. 31 March 2005 £9,753
For y.e. 31 March 2006 £16,705
£49,158
______
This, added to our previous £42,000 makes a total of £91,158.00 to-date.
FRIENDS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
JUNE 2005 NEWSLETTER
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Thursday October 19, 2005. Talk by Dr Quentin Wheeler, Keeper of Entomology.
Thursday January 19, 2006. Visit to Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, Lincolns Inn Fields
(where Richard Owen worked.)
To September 18, 2005. Face to Face. Photography by James Mollison of the endangered great apes.
Sherwood Gallery.
November 2005. Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.
Diamonds. Exhibition to 26 February 2006.
DARWIN EXHIBITION IN USA
The American Museum of Natural History in New York is planning to open a Darwin Exhibition later this year.
VISIT TO TRING
For the 14 or so Friends who came to Tring for the AGM and visit on 26 May 2005, Robert Prys-Jones’ assurance
that he would show us something special was tantalizing. Little did we know what we were in for.
Our visit started conventionally enough with a brief introduction to the facilities – widely regarded as the
best in the world for a bird collection, with unrivalled prices for bed and breakfast for visitors at £20/night
in Tring. Think how much it would cost in London. Moreover Tring was far removed from London where, a member
of staff who shall be nameless, opined that senior management was a greater threat to the collections than terrorism.
Tring continues to access in new specimens, but at a level of generally less than 1000 p.a. The collection
currently boasts examples of 95% of all recognized bird species worldwide, the American Museum of Natural
History (AMNH) being the other main ornithological institution. Like Tring, AMNH also owes its collections
to the activities of Walter Rothschild. Some 280,000 specimens were bought from Rothschild in the late 1930’s
at a rate of £1 per specimen, financed by an American philanthropist (Mrs Whitney.)
Alison Harding, the Librarian, explained how our donation from our last visit had been used to conserve manuscripts
relating to the egg collections: in some cases cellulose covers with linen tapes, in other cases, standard
boxes containing notebooks, or archive quality envelopes, all shelved horizontally.
On this occasion the exhibition in the Library was on the subject of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, long thought
extinct in its native habitat, having not been reliably recorded for 60 years. It has however now been reliably
reported, and the Library exhibition consisted of early descriptions and paintings of this handsome bird,
together with samples from the skin collection of this species, and several very similar species. The Ivory
Billed Woodpecker is the third largest woodpecker in the world, (the largest being the Imperial Woodpecker of
Mexico, not seen since the 1960’s). Other similar species include the Magellanic, and the Pileated Woodpecker,
of which we were shown specimens. The Pileated in particular frequents similar habitats to the Ivory Billed,
which it closely resembles: hence the problems in establishing identities with certainty. The Ivory Billed
suffered when in the late 1800’s substantial areas of forest in the southern USA where it lived, were felled.
In the 1930’s the key Singer Tract, where it had previously survived was felled, and it has only been in the
last few months that a remnant population on the far edge of the bird’s range has been identified.
Dr Jo Cooper updated us on her work on Egyptian mummified birds, which we had been shown on earlier visits.
These have now been displayed in a temporary exhibition since February 2005, to great publicity. Recent
advances in X-ray techniques have revealed a number of anomalies in these mummies, such as the insertion of an
extra leg or wing. It is unclear whether the extra limbs were inserted intentionally, whether the mummifier
was simply sweeping up spare limbs from his work place, or whether the extra limb was being used as a splint.
Nor is it clear what was the precise role of such mummified birds, frequently birds of prey. They are thought
to have had a ritual, religious significance. The examples which were sent to Tring many years ago by the
British Museum were regarded as mass-market material, somewhat roughly bound.
Mark Adams is the curator of the skins collection, and explained to us progress on the refurbishment of the
cabinets where large specimens such as geese, ostriches and moas are housed. These originally had linen blinds,
which allowed some light and much dust to get in, not to mention frequently jamming on their spring rollers.
As a result work has been undertaken to fit wooden door-frames onto the metal housing. To these are attached
specially fitted wooden doors with specially bespoke hinges, and neoprene seals. This will make access by
destructive mites and Anthrernus beetles much more difficult – an important point at a time where health and
safety regulations now preclude the use of any of the traditional insecticides such as paradichlorbenzene.
Instead, integrated pest management (IPM) techniques are used, checking for the presence of the destructive
Anthrenus beetle by using sticky traps, and stemming outbreaks by placing affected specimens in polythene
before subjecting to one week of freezing. Dessicants are also used to dry out and kill the beetles. It is
remarkable that so little infestation has so far been found, apart from certain specimens in the main museum
shown in less than air tight cases. The total cost of developing new doors for the cases containing large
specimens is £30,000 p.a. over 3 years.
From there we moved on to a display by Douglas Russell, the Curator of the Egg and Spirit collection. The work
involves topping up jars with spirit and replacing dangerous formaldelyde with spirit: much of it routine work,
but with the occasional surprise. Douglas drew our attention to a jar he had recently found, sealed with wax
and string, the spirit dark with age. It turned out to be a specimen from the Challenger Expedition of the
1870’s. This was the first of several major oceanic expeditions launched to explore the sea bed round the world,
fortuitously at a time before it had been polluted. The few birds collected during the expedition were written
up in the second of 50 volumes of reports. However the spirit and egg material was overlooked and not written up.
The specimen in the old jar Douglas had found was of the Tooth-Billed Pigeon, endemic to Samoa. How had it ended
up amongst the Challenger material? Investigations in the Palaeontological Dept. revealed ornithological notebooks,
from which it transpired that the specimen had almost certainly been passed from a missionary in Samoa, Rev. G. Brown,
to Fiji and thence to the Challenger expedition. The clue was the blackened and barely legible label in the jar,
wrongly transcribed, but now carefully preserved with the specimen in a new jar. Another example of problems of
the incorrect transcription of labels occurred when a goose turned up with a label ‘extremely fat’. Further
detailed investigation revealed that the original, mistranscribed label had read ‘Cromarty Firth’! The importance
of retaining old labels cannot be overemphasized.
The final part of our tour involved a presentation by Robert Prys-Jones, in charge of the bird skins collection.
We were shown recent acquisitions from Vietnam and Cambodia, countries with little if any facilities for preserving
new material, which are prepared to allow rare material to go to Tring. Another recent acquisition was a specimen
of the extremely rare Bermuda Cahow. Here a recently fledged dead juvenile was luckily recognized and sent to Tring.
Following modern curatorial practice, the skull and beak have been removed to the bone collection, and replaced on
the dried specimen with moulded replicas. A similar story resulted in the recent acquisition of a specimen of the
Mascarene Black Petrel, normally only found in Reunion. This specimen was killed in a car collision in Mauritius,
suggesting the possibility that a small colony may also survive there.
Recent interest has focused on vultures of which there are remarkably few skeleton specimens in collections.
There was recently a huge die-off of vultures in India and Pakistan due to the use of a veterinary drug in cattle
which causes renal failure in vultures feeding on their carcases. Negotiations with India for sample vulture
skeletons were difficult, but negotiations with the Pakistan government resulted in the acquisition of no less
than 40 vulture skeletons by Tring: We know what we want, and sometimes succeed where it is legally and ethically
possible.
Robert also showed us the bird registers which will be repaired using our Friends’ donation. This led to a discussion
of data-basing information associated with specimens at Tring. This work has encountered problems, not the least of
which is designing adequate numbers of fields for the data, and preparing it for inclusion in the data-base. The
system now in use is MOA coincidentally the name of a group of birds where DNA analysis has revealed a hitherto
unsuspected species complex.
This led naturally to further consideration of the importance of the data associated with specimens. How can the
use of such data be maximized? How can incorrect data be recognized and corrected – more particularly when intentional
fraud is involved? For the last part of our visit, Robert Prys-Jones in a tour de force illustrated dramatically
some of the problems and solutions.
He first took as an example the collection of finches made by Darwin in the Galapagos. These famous specimens were
passed to John Gould in London for study. Gould in turn passed the specimens to the Zoological Society in London.
However in 1857 the collection was broken up and sold, and Darwin’s historic specimens were scattered. Dr Frank
Steinheimer has produced a comprehensive account of all such specimens that can be traced, worldwide. In many
cases the original labels have been lost, and replaced by inaccurate ones, giving for example only the date of
subsequent donation, e.g. ‘C. Darwin, 1837’. By searching for specimens known to be from the Galapagos with dates
and provenance coinciding with known subsequent owners of parts of the Zoological Society collections broken up in
1857, it is sometimes possible to deduce with certainty that a specimen lacking any obvious Darwin connection on
its label must have come from Darwin’s historic collection. There may yet be other such specimens to be traced in
county and provincial museums round the country.
Greater problems are encountered with eggs, since the eggs of many species, particularly ducks, are similar.
During the nineteenth and early 20th centuries, egg collecting was popular, and fraud and theft not unknown.
The egg of the Greak Auk was most highly prized. It was the same shape and size as a swan egg we were shown
the two for comparison, including a swan egg painted to resemble that of a Great Auk. One collector, a Mr Salmon
had a genuine Great Auk egg, but on his death, the original Great Auk egg was stolen, and replaced with a fake,
painted swan egg. This original Great Auk egg ended up in Cambridge. The Labrador Duck, now extinct, once occurred
on the east coast of North America. There were allegedly 14 eggs in collections round the world, 2 being at Tring.
They have now all been shown at best to be incorrect identifications, if not frauds, by taking minute samples of the
membrane within the egg, and amplifying the DNA to compare this with DNA from readily identifiable preserved Labrador
Duck specimens. So there are no Labrador Duck eggs surviving in known collections. Here improved forensic techniques
facilitate accurate identification.
Many birds are not, or only very slightly sexually dimorphic, so until recently, there was no way of verifying sex
determinations by the collector in the field. These were often wrong. Now, similar DNA techniques involving CR
amplification of the CHD1 gene allow the sex of museum specimens of birds less than 100 years old to be determined,
and work is on hand to improve these techniques, currently being developed for use with live birds, for older museum
specimens.
The so-called ‘Hastings Rarities’ was a cause celebre in British ornithology in the late 1800’s to the 1920’s. An
extraordinary array of rare species of birds was reported from the Hastings area. Doubts were voiced privately behind
closed doors about the possibility of fraud. Certain of Rothschild’s own specimens bore labels, such as, ‘Seen before
dry at Bristow’s shop’, ‘Examined in the flesh by Ruskin Butterfield’, hinting that Rothschild himself had assuaged, in
part, his doubts, by recording the sighting of the specimen before it was prepared for preservation. Since then,
statistical analysis of the records has shown beyond doubt that they were fraudulent, and that a taxidermist called
Bristow was the culprit. He apparently took advantage of recently developed refrigeration techniques to bring frozen
specimens to Britain to pass off as records of exceedingly rare vagrants. None of his records are now accepted.
The star performer for ornithological fraud must however be Colonel R. Meintertzhagen. Apart from Rothschild,
Meinertzhagen had one of the best private collections of bird skins in the world, some 20,000 specimens. Although
he had numerous rows during his long career with NHM, (which included allegations of theft of specimens) eventually
he left his collection to them, and they are now at Tring. He was evidently an arrogant and unpleasant man. (See
his biography by Mark Crocker.) Meintertzhagen’s particular forte was reporting on substantial extensions to the
previously known range of various species. The first major crack to his reputation came when Alan Knox examined his
and the museum’s collections of redpolls. Knox’s examinations of the specimens were all external, but sufficed to
show that Meinertzhagen had stolen specimens from Tring and relabeled them with fraudulent data. Moreover missing
specimens in Tring matched the same number of specimens in Meinertzhagen’s collection. The question then arose as
to whether this was an isolated instance, or more widespread in the Meinertzhagen collection. Robert Prys-Jones
then examined more Meinertzhagen specimens in greater detail. This involved looking at the chemical signatures of
the specimens: what preservatives had been used? He also X-rayed the skins, noting the way the skull was cut and
X-ray opaque patterns, thus quickly building a picture of the style of the collection. He found that there was no
consistent style in Meinertzhagen’s collection. This confirmed Knox’s deductions as far as the redpolls were concerned,
and showed with a high degree of probability that up to one third of Meinertzhagen’s specimens were stolen from
Tring, and given fraudulent data. Repeated gaps in the Tring collections, and style of preservation, have enabled
the specimens in the Meinertzhagen collection to be reassociated with their correct data. It turns out that almost
every case where Meinertzhagen wrote and published a note on an unusual extension in the range of a species, was
fraudulent. He was also well capable of increasing the association value of his trophies. Thus he inscribed an
egg of the now extinct dwarf Syrian ostrich to indicate that it came from Doughty, the explorer of Arabia, via T.E.
Lawrence to him, when he presented it to Rothschild. Alas, it was all fiction, like much of his diaries, which survive
only in retyped form, the originals having been destroyed.
Miriam Rothschild had some idea of Meinertzhagen’s deceptions, and in her book Dear Lord Rothschild gave an account
of his activities, which she attributed to Cyril Cunningham. Robert Prys-Jones suddenly realized that he had never
heard of Cunningham, except from this book.
One of Meinertzhagen’s frauds has led to the rediscovery of the Indian Forest Owlet, known from 6 specimens from
India in the 1880’s, and one from a different location, ‘collected’ by Meinertzhagen in the early 20th century.
Pamela Rasmussen examined this specimen in detail, and found it had been relaxed and remade from a further Tring
specimen. Fruitless searches were made in the false locality where it had been allegedly collected, until the
forgery was discovered. When an intensive search was made in the original 1880 locality, the bird was refound.
The meeting closed with a discussion as to what could have motivated Meinertzhagen. We shall probably never know,
but a further biography in the pipeline is likely to be of considerable interest.
After lunch, we were taken on a tour of the public galleries by Paul Kitching.
Paul Kitching showed Friends round the public part of the Museum, emphasising efforts to maintain the historical
feeling of the displays, particularly for the refurbishment of the bird exhibits. This involved the stripping and
replacing of the casing, boarding, labelling and lighting. The birds themselves were stored temporarily in an upper
room; some had original Lord Rothschild collection labels. An early specimen of an Emperor Penguin collected by the
Erebus and Terror expedition stood rigidly to attention, contrasting with more natural later examples where the
taxidermist had knowledge of them in the wild.
As we toured other parts of the museum, Paul drew our attention particularly to those exhibits that had been central
to the interests of the Rothschilds, such as Charles Rothschild's dressed fleas and the zebra collection of Lord
Rothschild that included those that had been stabled in Piccadilly to draw traps and carriages. There were kangaroos,
wallabies, kiwis and other creatures that had originally lived in Tring Park or elsewhere. Irony was provided by a
specimen of the Edible Dormouse, extinct after an original Roman introduction but reintroduced by Lord Rothschild to
Tring Park. It spread from there to become widespread in the Chilterns and recently reinvaded the Museum to become
a nuisance in the space above the ceilings. Strict conservation legislation in place now meant that special arrangements
had to be made to trap and remove them. A huge Southern Elephant Seal revealed its origins during the refurbishment
when a torn and browned label was discovered indicating that it had been washed ashore dead in the Falklands.
Another exhibit of impressive size was the reconstruction of a Moa that Lord Rothschild had taken in an open-topped
taxi to a British Ornithologists' Union conference.
We are outstandingly grateful to the members of staff at Tring who made the day particularly enjoyable and interesting.
The Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey
ISBN 0 00 655137 8. Ppi xv, 1-501 + 1-14. Col. Pls. Harper Perennial, pb. 2005.
Richard Fortey continues to fascinate and charm with his writings on matters geological. In this book he has set out
to explain plate tectonics, continental drift and the way in which mountain ranges are formed and eroded.
In this connection it is salutary to recollect that the concept of continental drift, which had been aired over several
decades, only achieved general acceptance in the scientific community about 40 years ago. This is all the more remarkable
when the most casual glance at a map of the world shows the high degree of fit between the east coast of South America and
the west coast of Africa.
Fortey’s tour covers the surface of the globe, starting in southern Italy with Mount Vesuvius. This is perhaps the best
studied of volcanoes, with accounts of its unpredictable eruptions stretching back into antiquity and including the
annihilation of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
With a deft touch, Fortey describes the present day aspect of Mount Vesuvius, and the neighbouring countryside, together
with an explanation of the eruptions which have so dominated the history of the region. This method is followed
throughout the book, as the author hops from continent to continent, explaining how the forces of plate tectonics
throw up and double over the mountain ranges we know today. Erosion from rain ice and glacier have repeatedly worn
away mountain ranges in the world’s geological history, creating silts and sediments. These in turn have been reprocessed
through subduction into the mantle of the earth, only to be spewed out again in a different form, and possibly a different
place, millions of years later.
As a result the surface of the earth is slowly but inexorably changing all the time, and continental plates ride on
the surface of the earth, driven by powerful forces in the earth’s molten centre, which we are only now beginning to
understand. It is the currents of molten matter deep below the earth’s surface which drives the plates. At one time
in the dim distant geologic past, the land masses of the world were united in a supercontinent, now known as Pangaea.
In due course Pangaea was riven apart by tectonic forces, creating mountain ranges, and vast oceans, like the Atlantic
and Pacific. These movements still continue, and we now have sufficiently accurate instruments to measure their movements,
in terms of millimeters per year.
With Fortey’s assistance we are also able to learn of the importance of the mid-Atlantic, and other ocean ridges, where
magma from deep in the earth emerges in the ocean bed, deep beneath the sea, to power the movements of land accretion
and subduction the latter referring to cases where whole continental plates are forced, one below the other. It is
these forces where tectonic plates collide which generate earthquakes, and as we have seen recently on occasion vast tidal
waves, with such destructive effects.
The many different processes which take place on the earth’s surface are described in detail with examples from all over
the world: the European Alps, the extraordinary contortions which have created the geological potpourri of Newfoundland,
and the basic geological principles so clearly evident and active in the Hawaiian islands. All this is delivered in lively
readable prose, and with reference to the great geologists of the last 200 years, such as Charles Lyell, Arthur Holmes,
and particularly Eduard Sness, author of Das Antlitz der
Erde The Face of the Earth, published in four massive volumes, 1883-1904.
The earth’s surface is always changing, in response to weather and the central molten dynamo, which is the earth’s core,
and Fortey repeatedly illustrates how so much of our history and life is dependent on geological forces.
The forces of change have been so thorough in the earth’s geological history of some 4,550 million years that samples of
the earliest rocks, which have not subsequently been reprocessed, and changed almost beyond recognition, are hard to find.
Yet they exist, in geologically choice areas in Greenland, Newfoundland and western Australia. In their composition they
bear witness to the conditions of the earth in those distant chimes. The earth’s atmosphere then was one in which no
modern day plant or animal could survive. By analysis of the composition of the rocks, and dating techniques which have
developed by leaps and bounds, we can get some idea of conditions then.
In the same way, ultra-modern nuclear physics laboratories provide facilities for testing what happens to different
chemicals when they are subject to the massive temperatures and pressures which prevail thousands of kilometers below
the surface of the earth. Treating minute samples of such ingredients from the centre of the earth to such temperatures
and pressures gives an insight into the origins of different rocks now found on the earth’s surface. By extrapolation
therefore it is possible to work out, with a degree of accuracy unimaginable 50 years ago, what is happening in the earth’s
molten centre to drive the stately but unstoppable tectonic movements on the earth’s surface.
This book is a masterly tour de force, with an attractive array of colour plates. The line drawings however are fewer
and less satisfactory. Some of the denser pieces of geological explanation could have been usefully lightened and clarified
by additional line drawings: for instance a series with dates, showing the stages in the break-up of Pangaea.
Overall however the book is a fascinating and uptodate account of the earth’s geology a ‘must-read’ for all spectra
between the enthusiastic and none too acknowledgeable amateur and the professional geologist.
FRIENDS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
MARCH 2005 NEWSLETTER
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Thurs. 26 May 2005. Visit to Walter Rothschild Museum at Tring, combined with AGM.
April-Oct. 2005. In partnership with The Royal British Society of Sculptors, Diane Maclean presents sculptures and
works on paper on West Lawn and Gallery 50.
28 May - 18 Sept. 2005. Face to Face. Photography by James Mollison of the endangered great apes. Sherwood Gallery.
October 2005. Autumn meeting. Details to be announced.
FAREWELL
Dame Miriam Rothschild, one of the first Patrons of the Friends who has died aged 96, was a brilliant self-taught amateur
and generalist in scientific fields dominated by highly specialized professionals. As a young girl, her curiosity about
the large family gardens and the wider environment was infectious and many distinguished scholars were drawn to her. The
Daily Telegraph in a one-page obituary explained that Miriam’s position as the world authority in her field was confirmed
by her Catalogue of the Rothschild Collection of Fleas in the British Museum (Vols. I to VI), which appeared at intervals
from 1953 to 1983. She liked to keep her live specimen fleas in cellophane bags in her bedroom so that I can see what
they are doing and so children do not annoy them. As a lecturer, she was massively knowledgeable with an acute sense of fun.
Her academic achievements were outstanding.
Amongst many awards, she received the Linnean Society’s Bloomer Award, the Lynn Society’s Floral Medal and the Wigglesworth
Gold Medal of the Royal Entomological Society.
Perhaps most remarkably, in view of her lack of formal education, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
She published more than 300 scientific papers and several books, including Atlas of Insect Tissue (jointly, 1985);
Butterfly Cooing Like a Dove (1991); The Rothschild Gardens (1996) and Rothschild’s Reserves. In 1996 she opened the
National Dragonfly Museum in an old mill on her Ashton Wold estate.
She was there at the birth of The Friends of the Natural History Museum. On the several occasions when we spoke to her
about the Friends, her questions were acute about our development and the support we were getting from the Museum.
Miriam took her work and responsibilities most seriously and that meant you had to take her seriously.
Few of those present on the Friends’ first visit to Tring in 1994 will forget that memorable occasion when Miriam herself
attended. She entranced those in the party by reminiscing about her childhood in the house before the First World War.
One of the most vivid of her reminiscences was coming into the house, and being greeted by humming birds, which flew
up and hovered in front of her face to greet her.
We shall miss her kindly interest and shrewd advice.
Eric Moonman & Henry Barlow
The Frozen Ark: DNA Preservation in the 21st Century
On 20 January 2005 we started the year with a stimulating talk by Professor Phil Rainbow on plans to preserve the DNA
of endangered animals. An enthusiastic audience of more than twenty Friends attended round the boardroom table at NHM.
Professor Rainbow began by pointing out that currently we are facing extinction on a massive scale, comparable to
the mass extinctions in palaeohistory the most famous, but not the most extensive being the dinosaur extinction
some 60-65 million years ago.
Recent reports have indicated that some 24% (1130) of known mammal species face extinction in 30 years. 12% or
1183 bird species face the same fate in the same period. The position with invertebrates is almost certainly similar,
if not worse, as whole tropical, and to a lesser extent, temperate ecosystems are destroyed.
Now think back 50 years, to the time when Watson and Crick first discovered the double helix workings of DNA. Who
could have imagined that it would, 50 years on, have developed in such ways as working out the structure of the human
genome, to help determine paternity suits, and as an indispensable aid to taxonomy, to mention just two? Enormous
advances are still being made in the many specialized sub-fields which have developed in the last 50 years, and it
is hard to imagine the uses to which this discovery may be put 50 years from now. With the speeding up of genome
sequencing, the full genomes of several species a month will soon be being published.
This essentially is the argument used for current plans to preserve in deep freeze or fixative DNA from currently
endangered species. Will our descendants not consider us crass idiots, if we fail, when we still have the opportunity,
to preserve for posterity DNA samples which have already proved so valuable, and likely to be the more valuable in
50 years from now?
We are not yet in a Jurassic Park position. We cannot recreate a species from knowledge or retention of a sample of
its DNA, and it is morally arguable whether, if we had the knowledge, we should do so. That however is an argument
for the future, at a time when we may be able to maintain viable cell cultures.
For the moment, The Frozen Ark is to be set up as a charity, supported by NHM, to collect, preserve and store DNA,
and eventually perhaps, as technology advances, to preserve cell cultures, of endangered species.
Partners in the scheme are the Zoological Society of London, running London Zoo, for obvious reasons, and the
University of Nottingham. There is also collaboration with the Ambrose Monell Laboratory at the American Museum of
Natural History (AMNH), in New York, and the Animal Gene Storage Research Centre at Monash University, Melbourne.
Professor Rainbow emphasized the importance of not being imperialistic. There should be no question of the charity
attempting to sweep up samples of DNA from overseas without full agreement as to intellectual property rights.
Rather he foresaw a network of centres developing for conserving DNA worldwide, probably with agreements covering
the preservation of duplicates, to ensure that the collection would not be compromised by power failure, or for other
reasons in one site.
The actual preservation should be matched by a global interactive database of preserved samples using barcodes with
particular emphasis given to IUCN Red-Data species, in imminent danger of extinction.
Other institutions which have expressed interest are the San Diego Zoo in California, and the proposed National
Institute of Research into Aquatic Habitats (NIRAH) to be based near Bedford, where there is a possibility that UK
freshwater systems may be maintained artificially under big domes, as has been done for the plant world in the Eden
project.
The initial cost of this exercise is estimated at some £2 million for a centre based on the use of liquid nitrogen
as preservative. This is a project with which the NHM is keen to be associated. In the meantime a laboratory at
Nottingham University is being set up.
The most obvious species are those where samples are available through captive breeding programmes at London Zoo.
One such species is the Scimitar Horned Oryx, which has recently been reintroduced into its natural Arabian habitat.
Blood and tissue samples can easily be extracted from zoo specimens.
Other target species include the Socorro Dove (Zenaida graysoni), endemic to and in decline in the Socorro Is.
off the west coast of Mexico due to habitat loss and predation by domestic cats. Another species is the Seychelles
Fregate Beetle (Polposipus herculeanus), endemic to the Seychelles Island of Fregate, and the world’s largest
tenebrionid, endangered by fungal disease on its host plant Closer to home is the British Field Cricket, (Grylus
campestris), at one stage reduced to a single habitat in Sussex.
There is also considerable interest in Partula, a speciose genus of snails on volcanic islands in the Pacific,
chiefly Moorea, which is now threatened by the introduction of the African Land Snail. The problem was further
compounded when predatory snails, introduced to attack the African Land Snails, attacked Partula species instead.
In the case of large vertebrates, it is simply a question of tissue being placed into a deep freezer at 80ºC.
Many thousands of specimens can be stored in a relatively small space.
For viable cells, and thus the eventual prospect of possible culture, liquid nitrogen at 150ºC is best. The
technique is currently being handled best at AMNH in USA.
Issues which remain to be resolved include:
1. The rights of local communities and national governments in areas where samples are collected.
2. The resolution of intellectual property rights.
3. The development of an optimum strategy for access for research.
Professor Rainbow concluded his talk by reemphasizing the importance of international cooperation in finding solutions
to these problems.
In the course of a lively question and answer session, it was established that for the moment the initiative is not
commercially led, and the government has yet to be formally approached for grants.
The Friends will be making a small donation towards the initial costs of setting up the Frozen Ark Project in NHM,
as a gesture of appreciation to Prof Rainbow for sparing his time to talk to us.
VISIT TO DARWIN CENTRE
Phase 1
After his talk to The Friends reported above, Prof. Rainbow kindly gave us a guided tour of the Darwin Centre, Phase 1.
In his introduction, conducted on the ground floor of the Darwin Centre Phase 1 building, Prof. Rainbow explained
that this floor was for public access, with a view through glass windows into the storage area, which houses some
22 million specimens. Details of the collections are available from consoles in 12 languages, and there is an area
where scientists working on the collections give regular and sometimes themed talks to members of the public, often
prior to half hour tours round the upper floors of the building.
We were taken into the main collections storage area, a chilly 14ºC, below the flash point of alcohol, to see the
collections, arranged systematically. The problems of shelving the 463,000 jars of different sizes were explained
some are tall, others short. Altogether it took the efforts of all the curators, 10 trolley pushers and 35 others 9
months to move all the jars, with only 2 breakages. Jar tops are important: plastic and polythene tops are useless
long term as they perish, and must be replaced by glass tops – on which £30,000 has recently been spent. In order to
minimize evaporation of the alcohol, the glass stoppers are smeared with Vaseline. Additionally the low temperature
helps reduce evaporation. Red tops signify type material.
Our attention was particularly drawn to the Discovery collection, some 10,000 jars from the Discovery expedition to
the Atlantic early in the 20th century. This expedition took samples of plankton and other sea life-forms before the
Atlantic was as seriously affected as it is today by pollution and global warming. The collection recently came to
the NHM from Southampton when the government scandalously refused to pay further for its upkeep.
The ground glass jars are specially made for the NHM by a firm in Austria. We ended our visit with a view of the new
tank room, which contains the largest, and some of the oldest jars (200 years or more) which have distorted with age
(glass being essentially a liquid) and developed swollen bases. The largest of the specimens are kept in closed metal
vats of alcohol.
A complicated system of chains and pulleys has been incorporated into the designs to cope with the largest specimens,
including whales and dolphins washed up on UK shores. Here the NHM has a duty to undertake post-mortems. For this it
is necessary to be able to handle very large specimens.
What is scheduled to become a prize exhibit is a huge giant squid which was discovered almost dead just off the Falkland
Islands. With a body 3 m long and tentacles 10 m long, it was sent in a freezer to Hull, and thence, temporarily to
the Entomological Department at NHM, which for the moment had an adequately large freezer. Currently a tank 130 m
long costing £13,000 is being built, with £1,500 worth of pondliner in which the squid will be displayed, below a
special tent to extract the formalin fumes. It promises to be a star exhibit.
At the end of the talk, Henry Barlow, on behalf of The Friends, expressed their warm appreciation, not only for
Professor Rainbow’s talk, but also for a highly stimulating visit to the Darwin Phase 1 Building.
Collapse: How Societies choose to fail or survive by Jared Diamond. Published by Allen Lane, 2004. Hbk.
ISDN 0-713-99286-7 Pbk. ISBN 0-713-99862-8. Pp. i-xvii, 1-576.
The author systematically examines the reasons why a number of civilizations both ancient and modern have
declined and collapsed. He makes no claim to be comprehensive in his consideration of such collapsed civilizations.
He simply chooses civilizations the collapses of which illustrate recurring themes which run through the book.
The book, by the same author as the recent best-selling Guns, Germs and Steel draws chilling comparisons between
the ancient, and in one case contemporary society which he discusses, and the possible fate of our globalized,
heavily interrelated world. The tone is set by the reproduction of Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous poem, Ozymandias
at the beginning.
The collapsed civilizations which the author discusses in detail are those of the Pacific Ocean, the Pitcairn
Islands and Easter Island, in Central America, Anasazi sites, and the Maya, the Viking expansion to Greenland,
together with the contrast between the Dominican Republic and Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, Rwanda, China and
Australia.
As examples of civilizations which have taken sensible decisions and survived, he cites the New Guinea Highlands,
Tikopia Is. in the Pacific, Japan, and in addition to the Dominican Republic mentioned above, the Netherlands.
Interspersed in these accounts, and indeed fleshing them out, are discussions of the regularly recurring factors
which led either to the collapse of the civilization concerned, or its survival. What are the key characteristics
which determine whether a civilization will survive or perish?
First and foremost, a factor in every issue, is the problem of the environment. Amongst the main environmental
problems are the erosion of fertile land, by wind and rain, leading to the loss of topsoil and impoverishment,
exhaustion of supplies of fresh water, salinization and overwhelming population pressures: the land is simply
inadequate to support the population which has exploded. This either leads to mass emigration, and consequent
political destabilization of the receiving countries, or bloody internecine strife, as in Rwanda.
Other factors, sometimes but not always present in civilizational collapse are the decline or collapse of a
neighbouring society, the effects of which are to destroy the civilization under review, warfare with neighbours
and a failure to realize that traditional attitudes and customs need to change if the civilization is to endure.
A classic case of this, explained in some detail in the book is the collapse of the civilization of Easter Island,
which devoted an excessive proportion of their resources to erecting the statues for which the island is so famous.
In the course of this they destroyed all the forest vegetation on the island and as a result descended into bitter
internecine feuding which marked the end of traditional Easter Island society.
In contrast, another Pacific island, Tikopia, realized that they could only survive by micro-managing their environment
for food production, in marked contrast to the slash and burn agriculture practised elsewhere. Similarly the New Guinea
highlanders survived for many centuries in isolation by adopting the same approach. The Japanese in imperial times
realized the damage being caused by deforestation, and enforced strict measures to reafforest, and preserve what remained.
Alas this more recently has simply exported the problem, which has resulted in the now all but destroyed the rainforests
of S.E. Asia the timber of which is imported into Japan in vast quantities.
Diamond also, chillingly, spells out how often civilizations apparently at their peak, suddenly collapse due to exhaustion
of resources. The signs were there, but were not recognized. Moreover, as an American he realizes that in today's
increasingly interdependent and globalized world, civilizational collapse in one area can have profound effects on
the other side of the globe. America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil is but one example.
The implications for us in the 21st century in this well written and very readable book are inescapable and deeply
disturbing.
DECEMBER 2003 FNHM Newsletter
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
1 August - 3 May 2004. T. rex: The Killer Question. A special exhibition. Was he predator or scavenger?
18 Oct. - 18 April 2004. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition.
27 Oct. - 9 Feb. 2004. Life Through a Lens. An exhibition of black and white photographs from the opening of the Museum
to 1950.
Thurs. 22 Jan. 2004. Illustrated talk by our new President, Lord Oxburgh on his recent visit to and work in Antarctica.
Please use tear-off slip attached.
Tue. 8 June 2004. Video conference launch from Malaysia of The Moths of Borneo Data-base. (Morning UK time.)
Thurs. 10 June 2004. Visit to Darwin's home, Down House, combined with AGM.
Thurs. 1 July 2004. Open house at Dept. of Palaeontology.
VISIT TO THE PALAEONTOLOGY DEPARTMENT
On Wednesday 1 October 2003 at 3.30 p.m. some 16 Friends headed by our new Chairman Lord Oxburgh met at the Palaeontology
Department.
Dr Skipper, our hostess for the afternoon, provided an introduction to the activities of the Department and handed us over
to Mr Chris Collins of the Palaeontology Conservation Unit.
Chris Collins and his assistants explained that the aim of the department was to become the leading centre for conservation
of museum specimens, in UK and worldwide. As an example he showed us a glass model of a radiolarian, dating from over
100 years ago, looking like a particularly delicate sea urchin, and explained the problems in ensuring its conservation,
such as the organic glues and lacquers used.
Many of the specimens are so delicate that they can only be cleaned by laser – a sample of which was shown to us. This
expensive facility is shared currently between 3 museums in the vicinity. Other solutions can be much cheaper. For
example, saliva was found to be most effective for cleaning the delicate glass models mentioned above.
The Department is also keenly concerned with obtaining private sector contracts to help sustain its budget. Typically
such contracts are with oil prospecting companies. They rely on expertise provided by the Museum based on detailed
analysis of the fossil fauna to estimate the type and density of the substrate through which they will be digging in,
or to make sure they remain within a particular stratum. This was particularly the case in the construction of certain
parts of the Channel Tunnel.
The Department’s conservation work covers problems encountered in specimen conservation by other museums, both in the UK
and abroad. One sample we were shown involved a colorful marsh snake which had been tipped from its mount during an
inebriated moment when the Museum premises had been let for a private party. The fragile skin had been broken, and was
being pieced together so that the damage was unnoticeable to all but the most experienced eye.
A visit to the Acids Laboratory showed how staff undertake acid preparation to a high level of precision. The lab is
used for acid preparation of macro-specimens, for example to dissolve away a carbonate matrix from fossils that consist
of materials like silica, and is equipped for the large scale use of corrosive chemicals.
Subsequently we were shown imaging techniques which enabled the reconstruction of the inner ear of the frozen iceman,
found on the Italian/Austrian boundary in the Alps to be made.
Such moulding work is also of particular importance for supplying high quality replicas of dinosaur and other fossils
to museums around the world, not to mention the television industry, in the production of casts for filming.
The second part of the visit was conducted by Andy Currant, who showed us samples of well preserved skin and bones and
dung of a giant sloth, from South America, extinct for the last 12,000 years.
Evidence from caves in which both sloths and early human inhabitants of South America had spent the cold seasons suggested
that Homo sapiens had come off better in the encounter, and almost certainly hastened the extinction of the sloths.
He explained that the value of the collection lay both in the exordinary array of artifacts it contained, as well as in
the ingenuity of the human mind in devising stimulating questions for which the collections could provide the answers.
As an example, he pointed out that the pattern of specimens sent back by Darwin from his epic Beagle voyage suggested,
for the first time, that during one South American winter, he had spent much of his time on hunting expeditions of a
more sportive nature.
Lord Oxburgh proposed a vote of thanks to Dr Skipper and her colleagues in the Department, who had made the visit so
stimulating. A small donation will be made to the Department in appreciation of their hosting our visit. This will
help finance a rescue project at Keymer Quarry in Sussex next year. A green clay bed containing the rich microvertebrate
fauna will be excavated by the company for the next two years. This bed is important because:
* The green clay has yield abundant fish remains along with crocodile, dinosaur, turtle, lizard, salamander and mammal
remains.
* The latter three represent the only fossils of these groups of this age (Hauterivian) in Europe.
The Department will use the money for rescue work, sample sieving, sorting and curating the material, and are expecting
to publish a paper as a result.
CELEBRATING SIR HANS SLOANE
2003: the year to celebrate the life of Sir Hans Sloane who died in 1753 two hundred and fifty years ago.
We are also not far short of 2010, the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth in Ireland , for Sloane
lived to a remarkable age. He died in England just three months before his ninety-third birthday. That was a great
age for the time and all the more remarkable because, when only sixteen, young Hans had begun to spit blood. He was
virtually confined to his room for the next three years. Then he came to London .
I like to think that Sloane’s long life was at least partly attributable to his ‘discovery’ that the ground up
seed of Theobroma cacao, commonly known as chocolate, became less bitter and more palatable as the basis of a drink
when mixed with milk as well as water. It was not so much a ‘discovery’ as an observation, when in Jamaica , of how
the native population enjoyed the drink, even giving it to babies. Sloane was a first class observer and no doubt
that informed his urge to collect. Returned to England from Jamaica, Sloane sold the right to his recipe for drinking
chocolate to the Cadbury brothers who, for twenty-six years, successfully sold a chocolate drink under his name.
He recommended it for medicinal reasons, as modern chocolate makers do to this day. So maybe Sloane regularly took this
one of his own medicines and thus prolonged his life.
About the same age as Sloane, when he realised the merits of cocoa, I took my first job after graduating from university.
It was in fact with Cadbury Brothers Ltd. There, among more demanding duties, I was (believe me!) on the tasting
panel for Cadbury’s dairy milk chocolate. Like a schoolboy’s dream, I was paid to eat chocolate. It is for this
particular reason, while I admire Sloane’s discoveries in general, that I especially laud his recommendation to take
chocolate; and note with a personal interest this fellow chocolate consumer’s long life.
Sloane voyaged to the West Indies in 1687, sailing with Christopher Monk, the newly appointed governor of Jamaica and
his wife, as their personal physician. Monk was the second Duke of Albermarle. Sloane was aged only twenty-seven but
had already distinguished himself as a botanist, collector and doctor having recently been made a Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians. During his fifteen months based in Jamaica , Sloane botanised and continued to collect there
and in other islands. Naturally he included a specimen of cocoa, which is in his herbarium, now in the Natural History
Museum.
The Museum has celebrated Sir Hans Sloane with an exhibition. It is right that the Museum should do so, for it was
Sloane’s own herbarium that was the starting point for the Natural History Museum’s now world famous collection. It
is likewise appropriate that the exhibition was sponsored by the Cadogan family, for they are heirs to Sir Hans’
substantial estate. During his lifetime, besides collecting himself, Sloane had astutely bought others’ collections
and so put together a wealth of specimens, not solely botanical. The fashionable, the aristocratic or the studious
came from near and far to see these curiosities. Sloane welcomed visitors to his extraordinary collection and willed
it to the nation on the understanding that it should be kept together. So it happened that at his death the British
Museum Act of 1753 set up a scheme to house the collection and to finance the £20,000 needed for that, including a
lottery. (The recent award by the lottery fund to the Museum for the second phase of the Darwin Centre therefore has
a good historical precedent.) In 1881 Sloane’s collection was moved to the present Museum building, together with the
many more ‘natural history’ specimens amassed by then.
The Museum’s exhibition was bitter-sweet in more ways than one; not just because of its reference to drinking chocolate.
Second, it was a temporary exhibition scheduled to last only two months, so you must swallow a bitter pill if you have
missed it. If you did see it, then the nice selection of items about Sloane and his collecting must have been of some
interest. It included a few of his actual volumes of dried specimens, crucial for reference as well as valued for their
historic importance: Sloane’s collecting pre-dated Carolus Linnaeus’ work on standardised nomenclature. Sloane was aged
seventy-six when he was visited by the young Linnaeus, who was keen to see his herbarium.
Third, although chosen with care, there were all too few of Sloane’s 265 volumes on display. The reason for that is not
a meagre spirit within Dr Robert Huxley, head of Curation in the Department of Botany, who carried responsibility for what
was shown. His concern is with preservation of the at once vitally important yet fragile items left to the nation by
Sir Hans. They have to be looked after with care. Of course Dr Huxley is right; and he makes amends by a willingness
to allow private access for study to Sloane’s legacy. The exhibition made up for the lack of actual items with projected
images and informative captions. As one declared at the start, Sloane was a physician by training and a collector by
inclination.
Hans’ early training is of importance. Principles of medical treatment were evolving from the impractical classical
dogma of Claudius Galenus. In contrast, Sloane believed in observing the symptoms, identifying the cause and acting
on the evidence. His treatments were based on herbal remedies as we would call them now rather than on blood-letting
and worse. Sloane studied both abroad and in England . It was in 1677 that the Society of Apothecaries started
a ‘Physic’ garden at Chelsea . It was there that Hans would come to recognise beneficial plants and it was in their
Hall that he would further his studies. Plants were then, as still partially now, the basis of most medicines.
Hans was to apply what he learnt from the Apothecaries with much success.
You can still look about you at the very site where Hans looked and learned. If you went to the Chelsea Physic
Garden in 2003 you would have seen their delightful, small exhibition likewise celebrating Sloane’s life. It is
fitting in every way that his work and generosity should be celebrated there. As a wealthy man and local property
owner, remembering his student days with them, Sir Hans granted a lease on the Chelsea site to the Apothecaries in
perpetuity, at a nominal rent, on condition that they gave a hundred specimens each year to the Royal Society. He
had been made a Fellow of the Society at the age of twenty-five, such was his prodigious ability. It is thanks to that
lease and the energy of Sloane, that Chelsea’s famous gardener Philip Miller (1691-1771), Sir Joseph Banks, many other
distinguished people, and the more recent care of charitable bodies that we can enjoy the garden to this day.
Its name, a ‘physic’ garden reminds us of its medicinal origins as the term ‘botanic’ for the gardens of Kew and
elsewhere does not. Yet it was Miller who trained William Aiton, the first gardener at Kew.
Sloane cashed in on his powers of observation again when he saw a mysterious substance work a cure for the ague in
Jamaica . There he invested in a quantity of this so-called ‘Peruvian’ or ‘Jesuits’ bark which we now know to be
taken from the genus Cinchona, as Linnaeus was to name it. (Not until 1820 was its active ingredient called quinine
identified.) With an ample supply of the costly bark, Sloane was conspicuously well able to cure the ague in his
patients back in England . Such obvious success was part of his route to fame and fortune: royal physician and much
more besides.
Were you able to celebrate Sir Hans Sloane at these two small but sweet exhibitions? Whether or not you did, think
of him when you next enjoy a visit to the great collection at the Natural History Museum which grew from his fertile
seed. Think of him when you visit the Chelsea Physic Garden where he too walked, and where there still grows a
specimen of Cinchona pubescens, the source of the cure for malaria. There also you can buy for a small price a gem of
a booklet , sponsored by the Cadogan Estate, well titled ‘Celebrating Sloane: Sir Hans Sloane 1660-1753’. Especially,
please think of him when you next sip the hot comfort of a drink of creamy chocolate!
Tyrrell Marris
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003
Exhibited in the Jerwood Gallery until 18 April 2003
and www.nhm.ac.uk/WildPhoto
There have been twenty years collaboration between the Natural History Museum and the BBC Wildlife Magazine to make this
exhibition what it now is.
What is it? The joint sponsors claim that it is the most prestigious such competition in the world. That's believable,
not just because of its long life but because the quality of the winning entries merits superlatives for their scope, their
technical perfection, their whisker sharp portraits, their spectacular landscapes. And where is it? Every continent has
been depicted in the entries and very many countries near or far. Later the exhibition will move on to numerous other venues
besides those in Britain. For people who prefer to view 'from the comfort of your own home' (as the slogan goes) there
is the Museum's website, a venue located in electronic space. The wildlife photographic images are its most 'visited' item.
When the exhibition began, that would have been beyond belief.
Who competes? Numerically, there were some twenty thousand five hundred entries. It is impossible for the full panel of
judges to see that many so a first selection is made within the Museum which reduces the competition to a mere one thousand.
Some of the judges help to halve that number of potential winners. Finally, the whole panel picks the slightly more than
one hundred winning entries that are to be displayed for all to see. The chance of an entry going on show is therefore two
hundred to one against; yet evidently that is no deterrent. Interestingly, a member of the Design and Art Directors'
Association, also at the wildlife preview, said that they had a similar sized task of selection for their own yearly
competition.
Why compete? With so slim a chance of success it is relevant to consider what encourages a photographer to enter the
competition. A text from Sarah Kavanagh, the competition manager, helps to explain. She writes 'every year we're
impressed by the ever greater achievements of the photographers, and this year's magnificent collection of images is
no exception. The exhibition will be a must-see for all lovers of art, nature, photography and adventure, as the competition
has long been recognized as a showcase for the very best international photography of the natural world'. The central point
is the perceived world-wide prestige of having a winning entry in this exhibition: that must be what draws competitors.
More than that, maybe there is an urge to share, or to show off, their best images of nature.
It was informative to talk to Sharon Ament who is Director of Communications and Development for the Museum. She stressed
that the aim has always been to raise the quality of wildlife photography, as well as to raise awareness of the importance
of plant and animal life to mankind. By putting quality and content together, both of the highest order, the competition
has indeed improved the standard of photographers' work. For those same reasons there is no specific amateur's category.
Amateurs can compete like for like with professionals, and they do so; but to win, their entry must be up to the standard
of the best. There are no compromises: the image is preeminent. As for the future, moving images are never likely to be
included but perhaps digital images will be.
The latter possibility is problematical because a digital image can be altered electronically after the exposure was first
made. Is that fair, is that cheating, or is that creativity? There's a potential debate here which relates to Kavanagh's
assertion about the exhibition appealing to 'lovers of art'. Art lovers might be pleased by adjustments to an electronic
image so as to enhance its impression, rather as Whistler or Turner please us by changing their impressions of London or
Venice into something romantic, scarcely real. Even the apparently photographic views painted by Canaletto are, in fact,
contrived. Conversely, lovers of accuracy might not be so tolerant of images created after the event: pictures not developed
straight from the negative but partly computer generated.
This year the photographs displayed inside the Museum's Jerwood gallery have a competitive show - or perhaps a complementary
one - displayed outside the Museum. It is a remarkable collection of photographs called 'Earth from the Air'. Unlike the
wildlife exhibition, all the images on display are the work of one man, the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Most
of the pictures were taken from a helicopter at an altitude of three hundred to three thousand feet. There are one hundred
and sixty of them, each on the theme of sustainable development. The Museum estimates that some one million visits have
been made to see them - they are that good. Fewer than one million people will have visited because it is easy just to
pause for a while to look, time and time again, and so rewarding to do so. The variety of views from all over the Earth -
literally - is astounding. It is hard to judge whether this show will mainly stop some who might have come to the Wildlife
Photographer exhibition, or mainly encourage such an interest in photography that more will come. Whatever the effect,
it is good news that M. Arthus-Bertrand was one of this year's judges for the Wildlife competition: certainly he would spot
a truly good entry from amongst the less good.
Flying over the Earth is one way to get images. Rob Jordan from Northumberland told us how he spends hours in or beside
the water of a small local lake inhabited by black-necked grebe in order to photograph them. They are his favourite and
a rare subject. His images show the birds to perfection. That exemplifies how photographers take great pains to put
themselves in just the right place to get the perfect image. Even so, luck still comes into it: the 'eureka!' when subject,
light, background at once all and briefly come together to make a winning shot. The best of photographers admit to this.
Just look at Jeremy Woodhouse's animal portrait of a black-tailed jack rabbit. It was made as the low sun warmed the Rio
Grand Valley in South Texas, shone through those two upright rabbity ears and back lit the yellow eyes, alert and wild.
Jose B. Ruiz catches an equally vivid shot as white storks roost on a huge boulder. Thomas Endlein illustrates animal
behaviour with common frogs mating in Germany, near his home: so much spawn. There is little for lovers of adventure in
these images, but they grip as firmly as a tiger's stare.
'The World in Our Hands' is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. The category disappoints this year, as it has before,
partly because the technical quality suffers somewhat for the subject matter but principally because its subjects are so
negative. Of course man is beastly to wildlife - as too is wildlife itself - but there should be some positive images on
show. In Britain alone we have successes enough: the Red Kites re-introduced by the RSPB soaring over our motorways; or
the tower mustard (Arabis glabra) on Milord Common in Surrey and a hundred other rarities being brought back from the brink
of extinction by Plantlife. World-wide there must be many good stories to show.
In 2003 there is a welcome new category called 'Animals in their Environment'. It has attracted excellent winning images,
some of the best in an altogether outstanding collection this year. Exciting for its composition is a picture of a lone
Tenebrionid beetle drinking dew that has formed on its tiny body, raised to the breeze, in the otherwise arid Namib Desert.
The photographer is the Frenchman Olivier Grunewald. Many photographers show us equally interesting things. Here are just
three more examples that illustrate the surprises and complexities of nature. There is a beautiful picture of 'Staghorn'
lichen growing on a Jefferey pine in the Lassen Volcanic Nature Park of California. It has a more sinister name in Europe,
'Wolf'' lichen, because it was used to poison wolves. The native American Achomawi Indians used the lichen's poison on their
arrow heads. The photograph was taken by Fritz Polking of Germany. There is a vivid action shot of two red foxes in the
Swiss Alps taken by Eric Dragesco of France. They are snarling, fighting, the dog stealing food from the vixen: no chivalry
here - a purely human virtue it seems - just wild mammal behaviour. A third shot with a story to tell is by the German
Florian Mollers who shows us a wild boar, a sow really, suckling her young litter. What is so amazing to us about the
picture is its location, the pavement of a street in Berlin suburbia. There, wild boar have bcome the equivalent of London's
fearless urban foxes.
Wildlife and human life are forever living together on this Earth. This year's exhibition does full justice to the theme
with pictures of exceptional quality. Even if you have been before, especially if you have not, this is a show not to be
missed. Do go and maybe let us read your own opinions of these images of wildlife, the result of twenty years collaborative
resolve to encourage photographic excellence.
Tyrrell Marris
NEWS FROM THE MUSEUM
An invited audience was privileged to hear a brief account of the duties of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum
given by Sir Keith O'Nions, chair of the Trustees. Then he introduced Sir Neil Chalmers, the Director, who reviewed last
year's activities.
Besides seeing to the financial well-being of the Museum, the Trustees have the duty to make the most senior appointments
of staff. So it was that Sir Keith told us about Sir Neil's retirement next year. The Trustees already have a short list
of aspirants to the Directorship. Sir Neil will be a 'hard act to follow'. He goes to be Warden of Wadham College, Oxford:
their gain; the Museum's loss.
Highlights from Sir Neil's review of past achievements and future plans include:
* The Marie Curie award from the EU, won against keen competition. This valuable prize will finance eight post doctoral
researchers based at the Museum.
* 'Synthesis', a project to combine the skills of nineteen scientific bodies in Europe to boost work on systematics.
The necessary 13 million euros funding is likewise a most prestigious award from the EU. (The Linnean Society has long
argued the case for more UK Government support for the study of systematics)
* An 'audience development program' to improve the mixture of people who come to the Museum. Like many public bodies -
parks and galleries also - the Museum suspects that visits from some ethnic and age groups are under-represented.
* A conservation plan has been drawn up for the magnificent, but aging, buildings of the Museum so that they can be cared
for in an orderly way. Capital spending has increased from £7 million in 2000/01 to £10 million currently.
* A scheme to make a much enlarged area for temporary exhibitions, of 750 to 1,000 square metres, to supplement the Jerwood
Gallery and other halls. 'Block-buster' exhibitions like 'T. Rex: the killer question' seem effective in attracting new
audiences but need more space.
* Ideas for making more use of the external area now occupied by the popular 'Earth from the Air' exhibition of photographs.
* The relentless expansion of the Museum's website to provide more images and other data. Already live
material shows staff demonstrating their science from the Darwin Centre.
* Better handling of visitors now that there is unwelcome crowding at peak times. In 2000/01, when visits were paid for,
there were 1.7 million; in 2002/03 when they are free there have been 2.9 million. Over the same period grant finance has
increased from £49 million to £53 million.
All this is evidence of a dynamic institution, equipped both to innovate and to conserve, getting finance both from the UK
taxpayers and from elsewhere. Its staff continue to make significant and unique scientific discoveries. They also made
the Museum's collection and work ever more accessible through 21st century information technology and an astounding five
hundred refereed articles, plus more popular and prize-winning publications.
Yes indeed a 'hard act to follow'. The biggest challenge that Sir Neil leaves to his successor and the Trustees must be
to get the balance of the money needed for Phase Two of the Darwin Centre, and then to build it. Sir Neil's biggest single
success must be the completion of Phase One of that special place.
VISIT TO NHM LIBRARY
and
FAREWELL TO SIR WALTER
On the afternoon of Tuesday 25 November the Friends met on a visit to the NHM Library kindly arranged by Dr Chris Mills.
The meeting coincided with a farewell presentation to Sir Walter Bodmer, who recently retired from the post of President,
after some ten years.
Currently the Rare Book Room is running an exhibition entitled 'Drawing Conclusions - The Impact of Art on Natural History'.
This consists of a selection of images from the Library art collections, highlighting the contribution which art has made to
our understanding of the natural world since the 18th century. (Details are also available on )
Most of the images (some 500,000) are on paper, with only some 300 on canvas. Nevertheless the NHM collection is the third
largest in the country, dating from the sixteenth century till today.
The exhibition on display included a number of Australian items, including, from Captain Cook's expedition (1768-1771), Sydney
Parkinson's painting of the Hibiscus, the first such drawing, important both culturally and scientifically. Other Australian
drawings on display included a drawing by 'the Port Jackson painter' (precise identity unknown, ca. 1788-1790s of an echidna.
This drawing was later used as the basis for the first scientific description of the echidna by George Shaw of the British
Museum. A drawing by George Raper of the pigeon of Lord Howe Island, is one of the few records of a vanished and now extinct
species.
Similarly John Gould's picture, based only on animal skins, of the Pig-footed Bandicoot has provided an important record of
animals that are now extinct.
Looking more modern than they are, Arthur Henry Church's botanical drawings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century
anticipated the style of botanic illustration of the late twentieth century.
A contemporary acquisition is the colourful set of original drawings by Michael Roberts, used recently in his work illustrating
British spiders. The Museum does not only collect historic works.
However amongst the recent acquisitions we were shown the 11 volume work with 1100 colour plates on botany by Ferdinand
Bernhard Vietz (1772-1815), allegedly rarer even than Audubon. This was acquired with the assistance of Friends of the
National Libraries. Two further recent choice acquisitions were a set of drawings of cassowary heads painted by Frohawk,
from Walter Rothschild's library, presented by our Patron, Miriam Rothschild. They are not in his published monograph on
these birds, and will now be reunited with other paintings in the same collection already held by NHM.
The final new acquisition we were shown is one which has attracted some recent publicity, an album of drawings for the
terracottas in the Museum by Alfred Waterhouse. These unexpectedly came to light in France, apparently once owned by one
Mr C. Dujardin who was, with Waterhouse, deeply involved in both the design and casting of the terracotta figures which
form such a distinctive decorative feature of Waterhouse's museum. The Museum already had the master set. However the
latest collection contains some identical to but in better condition than the master set, several with a terracotta wash
applied. One third of the drawings in the album are completely different to those already in the Museum's own collection.
Intriguingly, black dots on some of the drawings, possibly printers' ink, suggest that this new collection was used to
illustrate articles on the museum shortly after it was opened. Detailed tests will shortly be undertaken to confirm this
point. The album was purchased with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund.
After the elegant ambiance of the Rare Books Room, we were shown the Conservation Unit, some two years old. The Unit
specializes in minor repair work, not sufficiently serious to require off-site treatment. Typically this involves securing
loose title pages with the use of tough but almost invisible tissue paper, and minor repairs to binding. The Unit is also
able to disbind books which are being digitized - i.e. the complete text and plates are being transferred onto a computer,
thus enabling CD ROM copies to be made of some of the rarer items. Reference to such copies is in many instances adequate
for research purposes, and thus unnecessary wear from excessive handling of the rare original is avoided. As an example we
saw work in progress on the disbinding of Joseph Banks' copy of Hans Sloane's 'Natural History of Jamaica' prior to digitizing.
On the completion of the visit, Friends enjoyed a glass of wine with Chris Mills and his colleagues. Sir Walter Bodmer
proposed a vote of thanks, and indicated that as is customary, on such occasions the Friends would like to make a donation.
Chris Mills produced two volumes in need of conservation attention, on which the donation will be used.
Finally, Henry Barlow on behalf of the Friends thanked Sir Walter Bodmer most warmly for the support and encouragement he
had given to the Friends during the ten years while he was President. As mementoes he presented Sir Walter with a striking
colour photo of the pillars of the main entrance to NHM, prepared by Caroline Deere, together with a copy of Darwin's '
Animals and Plants under Domestication'.
Our warmest good wishes and thanks to Sir Walter.
MARCH 2004 FNHM Newsletter
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
1 August 2003 - 3 May 2004. T. rex: The Killer Question. A special exhibition. Was he predator or scavenger?
18 Oct. 2003 - 18 April 2004. Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition.
Tue. 8 June 2004. Video conference launch from Malaysia of The Moths of Borneo Data-base. (Morning UK time.) See tear-off
slip attached.
Thurs. 10 June 2004. Visit to Darwin's home, Down House, combined with AGM. See tear-off slip attached.
Thurs. 1 July 2004. Open house at Dept. of Palaeontology.
NEW DIRECTOR
Dr Michael Dixon has been appointed as the new Director of NHM to succeed Sir Neil Chalmers, who retires after 15 years in
the job, later this year.
Dr Dixon, 47, is currently Director General of The Zoological Society of London with responsibility for London Zoo and
Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. He also has responsibility for the Society’s conservation activities and scientific research.
At ZSL he has spearheaded a £60 million project to develop a major conservation aquarium in the London Docklands area.
Before taking up his post with ZSL, Dr Dixon worked for 20 years in the scientific, medical and technical publishing industry
with Pitman, John Wiley & Sons and the Thomson Corporation.
The Friends congratulate Dr Dixon on his appointment, and hope that he will be able to address the Friends before too long
on his vision for the future development of NHM.
LORD OXBURGH ON THE ANTARCTIC
On Thursday, 22 January, approximately 25 Friends gathered in the Council/Committee Room at NHM to hear our President, Lord
Oxburgh talk on his recent visit to Antarctica: he had returned only the day before. Vice President Prof. Eric Moonman
introduced the Speaker.
In mid-2002, the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology decided to investigate certain of UK’s international
treaties – and in particular the Antarctic Treaty of 1958 signed by 25 nations, including U.K. The effect of this treaty
has been to put Antarctica south of the 60º line off limits for all except scientific research: there is to be no mining
or economic activity. However the treaty makes no mention of offshore areas.
Lord Oxburgh therefore headed a party invited to Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey, for many years the main British
presence on the continent, to review their activities.
Originally Antarctica formed part of a huge land mass, Gondwanaland, about 170 million years ago. At this time the continents
of Africa and South America were adjacent to each other, far south of their present positions, with India and Australia to
the northeast, and south of them, what we now know as Antarctica. The process of continental drift, the movement of
continents on tectonic plates over the intervening period has resulted in the continents assuming their present positions
at the rate of about 1-2 cm per year. As a result, Antarctica has become increasingly isolated by open seaways. It is the
highest continent in the world, averaging 2500 m above sea-level, and contains 95% of the earth’s ice, 70% of the earth’s
freshwater, but currently has little annual precipitation.
Access from UK by air is from RAF, Brize Norton via Ascension Island and Port Stanley in the Falklands. The British presence
is on the north western wedge of the continent, the Antarctic Peninsula, stretching north towards Cape Horn and the Falkland
Islands. Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, the terrain of which resembles the outer islands of Scotland, is important
as a staging post, from which survey boats such as the Shackleton operate, bringing supplies twice, at the beginning and end
of the antarctic summer, to Rothera, the main base halfway along the Peninsula. Rothera also boasts an air strip.
The pattern of work varies. Some go for 2-5 years, other simply for the summer (September to April): in any case a vast
change from modern urban life, with no phones or TV, and only the occasional email access.
The nature of life at Rothera changed – and not for the better, in 1993 when, under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, the
USA objected to the presence of huskies on the base, although they had lived there for over 100 years. The US argument,
which was at point of law correct, was that huskies were introduced animals (apart from man) which risked polluting the
environment. The effect on the morale of residents at the base was dramatic: until then there had been an inadequate
appreciation of the social role they played in the life of the isolated residents of the base. Those that were young and
healthy were sent to Canada, where all died within 6 months: the rest were shot.
Antarctica contains so few predators that most mammals and birds show little fear of people and other animals. The
largest mammals are of course the seals and sea-lions. The largest elephant seals weigh up to 2 mt – and stink. Their
bites are very serious, always turning septic due to their bacterial mouth fauna. The cut invariably goes bad and festers
for up to 2 years, showing no response to antibiotics. Sea lions are also common, and differ from seals because the seal’s
rear limbs have almost fused into a flapping tail, whereas in sea lions that fusion has not taken place and they can stand
on their rear ends. They are halfway in size between the elephant and Weddell seals. Birds are equally unconcerned by
the human presence, the commonest including the Tussock bird, about 6” long, the Turkey Vulture, and the Skua. The latter
is highly aggressive, with white patches on its wings, and will readily ‘bomb’ anyone approaching their nests. The best
known of the penguins are the Adelie penguins, which are monogamous. Their pairing rituals involve the selection of round
pebbles which are presented to one another – and occasionally to visiting humans. They make small stone basket nests,
the edges of which are decorated with smaller pebbles or sea-weed.
The macro-vegetation, as might be expected, is minimal, consisting of 2 species, Deschampsia antarctica (Gramineae),
growing in sparse tufts at the edge of rocks, and Colobanthus sp. (Caryophyllaceae), a hardy dwarf shrub. There are
however numerous mosses, lichens and nematodes.
Travel in the summer months is usually by rubber dinghy to nearby islands and around a coastline where huge mountains
fall steeply to the sea. Twin Otters are the workhorses of Antarctic air travel, fitted with skis under the wheels to
help landing on snow and ice. To avoid the risk of toppling into a crevasse when landing on unfamiliar terrain, it is
normal practice to do a trial run, skimming over the surface with the skis to test for crevasses, then loop round,
assuming the path is clear, for the full landing. Meteorological forecasts are of course essential, and each day the
met officer receives satellite pictures at 5.30 a.m. to enable a detailed forecast to be made for the day, pilots being
briefed at 7.45 a.m.
Semi-permanent accommodation is four persons to a room, in bunks, with a Raeburn cooker, allowing stays of up to three
months away from base, but with daily radio checks back to Rothera.
Much of the survey work involves the study of ice: the rate at which glaciers are moving, and whether, as they protrude
into the sea the tips are floating or grounded, the latter producing an ice-island. The shear points provide important
information on ice formation.
Away from the cabins, red tents are used, and Skiddoos, state-of-the-art vehicles have replaced the huskies. Somewhat
like a motorbike on two caterpillar tracks, with a steering mechanism on the handlebars, they can go at considerable
speed, (up to 50 mph), tackle steep slopes and draw sledges. As with Twin Otters, beware crevasses.
Almost the whole of the continent except at times, parts of the coast, is covered with ice, on average 2 km, at times
up to 4 km thick. Cores from such thicknesses of ice can provide valuable historic records, studying the different
sediments. The Russians, drilling a deep core at Vostok, managed to record the history of the earth’s atmosphere over
300,000 years. In higher areas, with low precipitation, snow accumulates and traps bubbles of air from that time. As
the snow is compressed to form ice, the air bubbles remain captured, recording the composition of the earth’s atmosphere
at that time. Dating is possible by measuring the isotopic composition of carbon in the air-bubbles, while volcanic
eruptions leave characteristic fine layers of dust, which settle out of the atmosphere onto the ice. Thus even the
explosion of Santorini in the Mediterranean can be discerned by its chemical fingerprint in the ice core in Antarctica.
The British team is currently drilling a core which is expected in this manner to record climatic changes dating back
800,000 – 1 million years ago – a powerful tool in the study of climate change.
In answer to a series of questions after the talk, Lord Oxburgh clarified that precipitation was of the order of
centimeters per annum, but more than is lost by evaporation. Mean temperature has increased by 2-3º over the last
75-100 years, but we have no idea of earlier fluctuations. Volcanic activity resembles more closely that of central
Africa than Iceland or the mid-Atlantic ridge.
Officially no oil reserves have been reported: but oil has been found in the seas near the Falkland Islands. Extraction
is environmentally hazardous, and currently uneconomic.
The pattern of water temperature around the Antarctic is complicated. Saltwater is at its densest at 4º C, at which
temperature it sinks and becomes no colder. At the same time the water temperature is affected by currents of warmer
water flowing in from equatorial regions, and fresh water from icebergs. All of these factors contribute to a
periantarctic current.
Below the surface of ice and snow, thanks to Antarctica’s complicated topography are, in some instances areas of ice
sitting on 1-10 m of water, which may well contain strange and previously unknown microfaunas.
One of the most important subjects for study at present in Antarctica is the ozone hole. The clear atmosphere also
means that is is suitable for astronomical observations.
Currently the breakdown of work undertaken by the British Antarctic Survey is glaciology 33%, atmospheric physics,
33%, artic biology 20% and geology 10% - all limited by the fact that research in Antarctica is some twenty times more
expensive than similar work undertaken elsewhere. Much of the funding comes from the FCO which regards the British
Antarctic Survey as a means of showing the flag for U.K.
Henry Barlow on behalf of The Friends thanked Lord Oxburgh most warmly for a fascinating insight into the world of
Antarctica and the work undertaken there. As is usual, a small donation will be given, as a gesture of appreciation,
to a NHM project of Lord Oxburgh’s choice.
Treasurehouse and Powerhouse. An assessment of the scientific, cultural and economic value of the Natural History
Museum by Tony Travers, Stephen Glaister and John Wakefield of Imperial College and London School of Economics.
At the beginning of the 21st century, what should be the role of NHM, and how can it be achieved? The NHM commissioned
the authors of this 32 page booklet to attempt to provide answers to these questions. It is clear from the way they have
addressed this issue that the audience which they have particularly in mind is HMG.
The NHM is a remarkable hybrid institution, and in the last 15 years this characteristic has become more pronounced as
greater emphasis has been placed on the need for the NHM to establish itself as one of the major tourist attractions in
London, if not U.K. At the same time, the activities of its 220 odd research scientists mean that it is one of the
leading research institutions in the country, and, in the case of taxonomy, in the world. It is thus comparable to a
university on the one hand, and a major tourist attraction like the Tower of London on the other.
The government in its understandable wish to provide access to all has decreed that NHM, like other government funded
museums, shall charge no admission fees, unlike the commercial tourist sites with which it competes, and has pegged
the NHM grant-in-aid to the level of inflation. Moreover it has added to the NHM’s existing obligations the need to
achieve certain social goals in terms of attracting schoolchildren and significant numbers of the underprivileged.
The report lays particular emphasis on the economics of the NHM within the UK economy, concluding that each pound provided
by the grant generates £3.25 – 4.00 in economic benefit, and analyzing the way that benefit is spread, both in terms of
employees, in and around London, and in overall spending over the whole of U.K.
One of the most interesting sections is the Appendix, which endeavours to assess, and make public, for the first time,
the indirect economic impact of the NHM on the economies of London and U.K. How much do overseas visitors to NHM contribute
indirectly, in terms of revenue (costs of food and accommodation, travel etc.) accruing to the British economy? The answer
is somewhere between £40 – 44 million p.a., using a conservative assessment. By contrast, UK visitors generate a further
modest £16 million only.
These figures help emphasize the international aspect of NHM. For largely historical reasons, the 70 million specimens
housed in NHM form one of the largest collections of natural artifacts in the world. Probably only the National Museum
of Natural History, Washington D.C. (part of the Smithsonian complex) can match NHM, and then only in its coverage of the
Americas. So what? The answer was put most succinctly by one unnamed participant in the survey: ‘The reason the collection
is so priceless is that it contains answers to lots of questions which we have still not asked, but which may prove vital
to the future of mankind.’
The report also attempts to assess where NHM stands on its academic contribution, and concludes that it compares with the
best of its peers, in the form of comparable university departments within U.K.
The government is unlikely to change its policy on free access to museums. What therefore are the options open to the
trustees and managers of NHM? Quite rightly individual exhibitions within the NHM are accessible only on paying an entry
fee. It seems likely that commissioned research will never generate more than a modest contribution to NHM costs and
similarly the vexed issue of bench-fees. (It is perhaps worth noting here that the decisions on whether or not to charge
such fees are taken on a case-by-case basis and not harshly interpreted.)
The authors cogently make the case that the criteria imposed by HMG to enable NHM to qualify for grant-in-aid appear to be
significantly more stringent than is the case with overseas institutions. This suggests the need to attempt to persuade
the UK government to take a less harsh approach.
However the major difference between NHM and successful US museums of natural history, with a broadly similar brief to do
scientific research, and to entertain, is scarcely considered. This is the role of voluntary funding. Perhaps the most
successful of all is the Metropolitan Museum in New York: no natural history there but it is noteworthy that the artifacts
of nature have always fared worse in terms of funding than the artifacts of man. There is of course in USA a much more
robust tradition of endowments, both to museums and universities: yet the tax treatments in the two countries are broadly
similar. Perhaps it would be in the UK government interest, not just for NHM, to consider what extra tax incentives might
be offered to encourage charitable donations. At the same time there may be an opportunity for NHM to develop some creative
schemes to draw money from potential donors?
Potted Histories: An Artistic Voyage through Plant Exploration by Sandra Knapp. Pp. 1-336. Hb. ISBN 1-902686-28-4.
Scriptum Editions in association with the Natural History Museum, London.
This handsomely produced book consists of a series of essays on twenty plant families, each essay illustrated by a selection
of paintings or drawings from the incomparable NHM Library. It comes with an introduction by Peter H. and Patricia D. Raven
of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.
The families selected are, by and large, those most likely to appeal to temperate botanists. No pitcher plants or giant
Rafflesias here.
Each chapter, together with its supporting pictures runs from 14-16 pages, of which somewhat less than a half is text.
The texts are wide-ranging, dealing from legends associated with the group from classical Greek and Roman times, to modern
issues of classification and conservation. They cover the earliest descriptions, through to use in medieval Europe, where
appropriate, or the history of the discovery of individual plants from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Every page spread is illustrated by one or more stunning photographs, dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
The legends alas are without exception written on a vertical access so that one cricks one's neck reading them. This is
partially compensated by a series of large postage stamp reproductions of all illustrations used at the end of each chapter.
Here the name of the author and a potted history of the illustration are given - on the same axis as the book.
The book concludes with a section about botanical scientific names, biographies of the various painters represented (by
Judith Magee), selected bibliography, index and acknowledgements.
As an eminently readable introduction to the pleasures of botany, the book is outstanding, while the illustrations
emphasize yet again what a treasure trove is to be found within the NHM Library.
TERRACOTTA CORNER PROTECTORS
by Caroline Dear
The Natural History Museum is famous for the architectural use of terracotta by Alfred Waterhouse to face (cover) an
iron and brick framework beneath. Wherever one looks, decoration of some sort greets the eye. Originally used as a
cheap alternative to stone in the Victorian period, terracotta was intended to be easier to clean, due to its outer
protective fireskin and glaze.
Externally, environmental pollution (acid smoke, car exhaust fumes etc) has unfortunately changed this perception. So
much so, that terracotta-faced buildings underwent a cleaning regime that was too harsh, thus removing their outer
protection and allowing gradual decay of the underlying material. Internally, cleaning and maintenance has also taken place.
But other traumas face the Natural History Museum.
A keen eye can spot the daily damage to the building, from visitors, the general movement of specimens and equipment,
and evening functions. Positioning oneself discreetly at busy spots provides immediate visual proof of such damage.
Freshly spalled (chipped) terracotta is noted on each visit, and recorded. Evidence of the contrasting colours of old
surfaces being interspersed by the bright 'yellow' of freshly-fired clay, the first time it has been exposed to the air
for over a hundred years...
The original terracotta is getting more fragile year by year and has to be conserved either by touching up (which in some
cases is not possible), or replacement. Replacement blocks are a last resort if damage has been so severe that any safety
to the public is of concern and is done at a considerable cost in time and money.
My dissertation on "The Terracotta of the Natural History Museum" involved considerable research into the causes of damage
to the building. If anyone is interested, a copy of both Volumes I and II is kept in the General Library of the Museum
for archive purposes. It is since then that protective corner plates have been installed in the more 'at risk' areas,
such as the Main Entrance, Central Hall, and North Hall.
The design of the corner plates was developed by Hamson Partnership with the Natural History Museum, following lengthy
discussions with English Heritage and RBKC, consideration being given as to their style, their on-going protection, use
of sympathetic materials, and their style 'in keeping' with the NHM. The eventual outcome was the use of traditional
sheet bronze, an 'organic' shape (petal), moulded to fit the terracotta profile(s).
Currently, 10 derivatives of the design accommodate the slight variations in plinth profiles found throughout the main
hall, while the 'tree of life' logo can be seen on a small number of protectors in the main entrance hall, but was
considered too modern to be used throughout.
Paid for by Conferences & Events, with Estates paying the Museum's fees and fitting, a total of 80 protectors have so
far been produced at a cost of £15k. A smaller version of the same design is currently in use in the lift lobbies, but
due to the amount of passing traffic, provides insufficient protection. This is now the main area of concern.
The protectors are attached directly to both the terracotta and the floor, and as with all con