STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 599 



is devoted to the collections; the second— practically only an interme- 

 diate story— is allotted to many workrooms, which all adjoin one 

 another. Such an excellent arrangement is seldom found in any other 

 large museum. 



In the basement, separated by a corridor 6 meters wide, are located 

 the preparators' quarters and storerooms, the first well lighted, the 

 second not so well, but to be provided with electric lights. The whole 

 length is 84.26 meters, the width 30 meters. There is one preparatory' 

 room 24.8 meters long and 15 meters wide, and three, each 18.6 meters 

 long and 15 meters wide. Corresponding to these are four storerooms, 

 each 7 meters wide. The height of the ))asement rooms is 4.5 meters; 

 the portion under the gallery of the ground-tloor hall, 5 and 7 meters. 



Fir,. 117.— Royal Museum of Natural History, Brussels, Belgium. Large lower hall. 



The large hall on the ground floor (to be devoted to the recent and fossil 

 vertebrate animals of Belgium and its colonies) is 84.26 meters long, 

 30 meters wide, and 7.2 meters high. It will, however, ))e lengthened 

 by 18 meters, so that the entire length of the building with the stair- 

 way hall in front will be 109 meters. The ceiling of this hall, in its 

 entire width of 30 metei-s, is supported only by a central row of iron 

 columns, of which there are 13, spaced 6.2 meters apart. Each half 

 of the hall has, consequently, a clear, unobstructed width of 15 meters 

 for the use of the collections— a width which, without columns, has 

 been made use of in but few museums l)efore the present day. Even 

 permitting, as is proved in this instance, a superstructure of stories,'' 



a The breadth of the hall in the Paris Anatomical Museum ia 14 meters, without 

 supporting columns. 



