14 MUSEUMS. 



acqiiisitions to the Museum during the year have been large, and 

 much of the time of the Scientific Staff has been occupied in the 

 identification and registration of these specimens. 



Much temporary inconvenience has been caused to the public 

 from the closing of several of the larger galleries necessitated by 

 the removal of the exterior walls of the old building for the purpose 

 of joining it on to the Extension in course of erection ; and to the 

 Scientific Staff by their having during the reconstruction to vacate 

 the rooms in the basement which have so long inefficiently served for 

 laboratories. When completed these dismal, badly lighted apart- 

 ments, formerly the kitchen and rooms of the caretaker, which possess 

 no single appliance for the conduct of scientific work, will, by the 

 enlargement of the rooms, heightening of the windows, and the in- 

 troduction of all the most modern fittings and appliances, at last 

 and for the first time in the history of the institution, provide 

 suitable accommodation and studies for the scientific officers. 



The Sokotran collections have not yet all arrived at the Museum, 

 as it has been necessary to retain all the specimens of the different 

 groups intact in London until the specialists who have kindly under- 

 taken their identification had completed their work. It has been 

 impossible, therefore, to incorporate them in this year's Register. 

 The whole of the collections will appear among the additions to the 

 Museum in the next Annual Report. 



The series of photographic enlargements illustrating the various 

 races of mankind have been still further added to. Copies have, as 

 in previous years, been presented to the British Museum, and a 

 series is being supplied to Cambridge University : while requests 

 have been received from other Museums for copies in exchange. 

 These anthropological photographs (inaugurated and first exhibited 

 in England in this Museum) early attracted the commendation of so 

 distinguished an anthropologist as the late Sir William Flower ; and 

 since then the collection has been visited by many anthropologists 

 from Europe and America, who have expressed their appreciation of 

 its great value. 



