20 



arrangement, a power is reserved to the Society to put an end 

 to the agreement on giving to Mr. Cuming a certain notice. 



The Council have now to congratulate the Members on 

 the 



Acquisition of a Museum 



more adequate for the display of the extensive and valuable 

 collection of preserved animals possessed by the Society. It 

 would be useless on this occasion to refer to the various at- 

 tempts that have been made for several years past for the 

 attainment of this desirable object, or to advert to the causes 

 which prevented the completion of the negotiation for other 

 premises that was pending at the time of the last Annual 

 Report. Renewed inquiries became necessary in conse- 

 quence, and they have ended in the engagement of extensive 

 premises in Leicester Square, which appear to be, in most 

 points of view, well adapted for the. present purposes of the 

 Society : the spot itself is connected with the history of the 

 progress in England of that essential branch of Zoology, 

 Comparative Anatomy, as the house and Museum of John 

 Hunter. In well arranged rooms and galleries, lighted from 

 the top, the new Museum affords accommodation for more 

 than twice the extent of cases that could be crowded into 

 the rooms hitherto occupied in Bruton Street : and the con- 

 sequence will be the immediate exhibition of the most exten- 

 sive series of Mammalia and Birds that is yet open to public 

 view in this kingdom, occupying a series of cases 460 feet 

 in length. The fittings are now proceeding rapidly ; and 

 they will be completed to the extent necessary for the re- 

 ception of those classes in less than a month. The Museum, 

 which is for the present closed, will then be reopened with 

 greatly increased attractions, and the Council anticipate that 

 the number of Visitors to it will be so large as to produce a 

 considerable addition to the Society's Income. 



The increased extent of the Museum, and the importance 

 of completing catalogues of the objects contained in its seve- 



