THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS AND ESTABLISHMENTS 
OF GREAT BRITAIN, BELGIUM, AND THE NETHER- 
LANDS. 
By GUSTAVE LOISEL, 
Director of the Laboratory of General Embryology at the School of Hautes 
Etudes, Professor of Zoology in the Secondary Courses at the Sorbonne, 
Paris. 
The zoological gardens now existing in the world, with the excep- 
tion of that at Schénbrunn, are all derived in some manner from our 
Jardin des Plantes. They were not established until a long time 
afterwards, since the oldest of them, that of London, was not opened 
until 1828, but they have all taken it for a model as regards their 
aviaries, cages, and inclosures, as well as in their museums and their 
laboratories. A proof of this is very explicitly given by Mr. Henry 
Scherren, in his book “ The Zoological Society of London, A Sketch 
of its Foundation and Development” (1896, p. 19), and by Mr. 
Stanley Flower, in his report of a tour of which I shall speak further 
on. This origin is at once evident by comparing the drawings given 
by Mr. Scherren of the animal quarters in the London garden of 
1850 with those which still exist, unchanged, unfortunately, in the 
menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes. 
Though these foreign gardens were originally inspired by our 
old national institution, they have increased in size and during re- 
cent years have renewed the greater part of their old structures. 
For this purpose the directors or superintendents of some of these 
gardens have visited the principal countries of Europe in order to 
note and profit by the progress attained by other similar establish- 
ments. 
In making this tour of inspection I did not confine my visits and 
studies to zoological gardens alone. I was charged to give attention 
2Translated and abridged from the ‘Rapport sur une mission scientifique 
dans les jardins et établissements zoologiques publics et privés du Royaume- 
Uni, de la Belgique et des Pays-Bas,” par M. Gustave Loisel. Extrait des Nou- 
velles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, t. xiv. Paris, 1907. 
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