The New Museum. 39 



could be stored, thus answering its temporary purpose well 1875-1878. 

 enough until still better accommodation could be given for 

 a collection of great value, which, besides, was such as had 

 never been exhibited before. 



2. The northern galleries on the ground-floor, six in number, 

 had been built of unequal width, three alternate ones being 

 nearly double the width of the others. This plan had been 

 adopted by the architect with the idea that the narrow galleries 

 would be utilised as commodious rooms for students, and would 

 be separated from the broad exhibition-galleries by the row of 

 cases only. This arrangement was unfortunately not consistent 

 with the conditions in the new building ; and all these galleries 

 had to be separated from each other by partition-walls, each 

 gallery being devoted to a separate division of animals. 



3. No provision whatever had been made for housing the 

 specimens preserved in spirit, which in the old building already 

 occupied every available space in three large rooms. However, 

 even if room could have been found, the danger of introducing 

 some 5000 gallons of highly inflammable spirit into the main 

 building was so real that the Keeper recommended the 

 Trustees to erect for the reception of this collection a separate 

 fire-proof building at the back of the Museum. The Trustees 

 adopted this recommendation (October, 1875), which, after some 

 hesitation (December, 1876; May, 1878), was sanctioned by the 

 Treasury (March, 1879). The Keeper submitted plans of the 

 building and fittings. Taking for a basis of calculation the 

 area occupied by this collection at Blooms bury and the capacity 

 of the cases, the building was intended to supply five times that 

 space, beside three rooms for the staff and students, and an 

 annex for redistilling old spirit ; it was calculated to give 

 sufficient room for the increase of the collection in the next 

 fifteen or twenty years. 



Surprise has sometimes been expressed that the large gallery 

 on the ground floor was not selected for the exhibition of the 

 Mammalia, which include the bulkiest and heaviest objects. 

 This, indeed, was the original intention ; but when the Keeper 

 prepared the plans for the fittings of the various galleries, he 

 found that the bas-reliefs with which the Architect had orna- 

 mented the capitals of the columns against which the cases 

 abut would not allow the erection of cases of a size required 

 for this particular exhibition ; in consequence the Mammals had 

 to be consigned to the gallery on the first floor, in which the 

 terra cotta ornamentations had not yet been fixed. However, 



