526 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 190.3. 



and moreover, double windows are just as likely to become frosted. 

 These are not, therefore, necessary in a new building, unless we prefer 

 them bocauso the movement of air and conseciuenth" of dust can be 

 diminished ])y their use, and because the dust from the street is less 

 likely to enter, except when, as we shall see below, the windows are 

 closely secured and dust-free air is brought in through other openings. 



The museum can not be said to be entirely fireproof. Much super- 

 fluous wood is used, and the location of the heating apparatus is 

 unfavorable. 



The museum has four departments — zoology, geology, mineralogy, 

 and botany. Its annual expenditure is about $250,000. Each depart- 

 ment has a keeper who receives from $3,500 to $4,000, and there are 

 assistant keepers with salaries of $2,600 to $3,200; assistants of the 

 first class, with salaries ranging from $1,500 to $2,500, and of the 

 second class, from $750 to $1,500. 



Special mention should be made of the publication by the museum, 

 at its own cost, of systematic descriptive catalogues aggregating con- 

 siderably more than 200 volumes, with thousands of iUustrations. In 

 this undertaking the British Museum is preeminent and by it has put 

 deeply in its debt every student of natural science. It excels all other 

 museums of the earth so markedh^ in this respect that they sink into 

 insignificance by comparison. It woidd be useless even to attempt to 

 compete with England in this regard. These catalogues are not only 

 catalogues of the collections of the museum, but monographs in which 

 all known species are described, whether the}^ are represented in the 

 museum or not. There is, however, little that is lacking in the collec- 

 tions of the British Museum, for, as has already been said, no col- 

 lections in the world can be compared with them in completeness. It 

 is not my purpose here to describe in detail this famous collection. 

 The most notable exhibits are, perhaps, those in the mineralogical and 

 paleontological departments, and in the so-called "Index Museum"" 

 of the main hall, which serves as an introduction to zoology and is an 

 original creation of the former director. Sir William Flower. Many 

 museums have endeavored to imitate this feature to some extent. 

 The catalogues mentioned are distributed liberall3^ 



18. BRITISH MUSEUM. 



[(ireat Russell street, Bloomsbury.] 



In the British Museum on this occasion I confined my attention 

 chiefly to the ethnographic collection. It contains many valuable old 

 specimens, l)ut has not kept pace with its sister collections. While 

 Berlin has since the seventies built up an ethnographical collection 

 which is scarcel}' to be surpassed, and good collections have been 

 brought together in many cities of Europe and America, London has 



