MUSEUMS. 



11 



fishes in the neighbourhood for use as food. The whole organ is thus a 

 most remarkable instance of adaptation, this feature being accentuated 

 by the circumstance that since the organ once discharged goes on 

 discharging through its own activity onlj-, the total result is achieved by 

 the fish at very small expense to the Central Nervous System, and can 

 thus be repeated many times without fatigue." 



The best thanics of this Committee are due to Mr. E. Hartert, the 

 Curator of the Hon. Walter Rothschild's Museum at Tring, for his 

 kindness in naming the whole of the species of Caprimnlgulce or Night- 

 jars — on which he is an authorit}' — in this Museum ; also to the Hon. 

 Walter Eothschild for generously lending the cranium of " Sally," the 

 famous Chimpanzee, which lived for many years in the Zoological 

 Gardens in London, and in like manner to Professor Herdman, F.R S., 

 for the loan of the crania and brains of specimens in University College 

 Museum, in both oases to enable the Director to compare them with 

 those in the Derby Museum, in order to aid in the settlement of the question 

 at present under investigation, as to the number of species of Chimpanzee 

 there are now in existence. 



{b) Arrangement. 



A commencement has been made in the re-arrangement of the Zoological 

 Collections. The Room which, if the proposed extension of the 

 Museums be carried out, will be the first of the continuous gallery 

 destined to contain the vertebrates, in as nearly as possible, their evolu- 

 tional order, is now in process of arrangement. It is to be devoted to 

 Man and the Simian anthropoids — the Chimpanzees, the Gorillas, the 

 Orang-utans, and the Gibbons. An entirely new series is being pre- 

 pared, exemplifying the various races of mankind, by crania, casts, 

 and drawings, or enlarged photographs of their features. The anthropoids 

 will be represented by mounted specimens ; and both will be illustrated 

 by comparative pi*eparations of their osteology and internal anatomy. 



In the invertebrate galleries it has been impossible to undertake any 

 special re-organisation ; it is less pressing there than in those of the 

 Vertebrate series. The Assistant Curator has, however, re-arranged the 

 Protozoa. 



In the Mineralogical and Geological Galleries, little beyond labelling 

 and more efficiently displaying the specimens already on view, has been 

 possible. Mr. Marrat has, however, completed the Catalogue of the 

 •whole of the Mineralogical Collections on exhibit. 



