32 Department of Zoology. 



1875-1878. In the Entomological section the routine-work was continued, 

 such as incorporating acquisitions, reporting on such as required 

 immediate attention, etc. In 1878 alone the entomologists 

 added 822 types of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera 

 to the collection. Mr. Waterhouse continued the systematic 

 arrangement of the general series of Longicorns, and afterwards 

 proceeded to similar work on the Lycidse. 



Finally, the large collections made by the naturalists of the 

 " Transit of Venus " Expeditions (see p. 35) were examined, and 

 partly incorporated, partly distributed among other institutions. 

 This service, in which nearly the whole staff participated, was 

 completed with the publication of the " Report " in the ' Philo- 

 sophical Transactions,' under the joint editorship of Sir J. Hooker, 

 President of the Royal Society, and the Keeper of the 

 Department. 



The arrangement of the Coral collection, which as a whole 

 had never received full attention, and to which many specimens 

 had been recently added, had become very urgent, the more so 

 as a separate gallery in the new Museum had been assigned to 

 them and the Sponges. The offer for this service of Dr. F. Brugge- 

 mann, a young naturalist who had worked out the Jena collection 

 to Professor Haeckel's entire satisfaction, was accepted by the 

 Trustees. He was engaged to prepare a descriptive catalogue, a 

 task for which he possessed all qualifications. Industrious, 

 painstaking, methodical, he had made very good progress, when 

 the work was unexpectedly interrupted by his death in April, 

 1878. The MS. which he left showed that he had actually 

 determined 1900 specimens, and his successors in later years 

 profited not a little from it. 



The study of the collection of Sponges had been intermittently 

 taken up by Dr. Gray, but he had to limit himself to the 

 description of particularly striking forms, and he did not enter 

 into a systematic study of their minute structure. He received, 

 however, great assistance from the late Mr. H. J. Carter, F.R.S., 

 who devoted several years to the generic determination of the 

 collection, publishing the most important results of his studies 

 in a series of well-known memoirs. He completed the work 

 about this time, depositing in the Department a MS. catalogue 

 which proved to be of great service to the Assistants who 

 continued his work in the following years. Mr. Carter also gave 

 his assistance in the arrangement of the general portion of the 

 Bowerbank collection acquired in 1876, and later, in a similar 

 examination of the British portion. 



