December 7, 191 1] 



NATURE 



177 



THE NEW BELL-PETTIGREW MUSEUM OF 



XATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY 



OF ST. ANDREWS. 



n^HE comparatively few specimens of natural 



-1 history in the olden time were stored in the 

 Library of the University or in other rooms, and 

 though Dr. McVicar, the" first lecturer on the sub- 

 ject of natural history, commenced a new collection, 

 about 1826, in the old dining hall of the United 

 College, the results were small. It was not until 1838, 

 the date of the foundation of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, 

 that Sir David Brewster pressed for- 

 ward the formation of a museum for 

 the University ; indeed, this was one 

 of the main aims of the society. 

 Under the fostering" care of the dis- 

 tinguished principal just mentioned, 

 active progress was made, and by and 

 by the Government provided a hall 

 and adjoining rooms, with the neces- 

 sary cases for the collections. The 

 specimens have gradually accumulated 

 -ince that date, and to such a degree 



ifter 1882 that the crowded condition 

 of the shelves renders the museum at 

 present mainly a store for the pre- 

 servation rather than the exhibition 



f its contents. The need for exten- 

 ■-ion was felt as early as 1884, when 

 the architect of the i3oard of Works 

 made plans for the extension of the 

 museum on the present site — plans 

 which met with the approval of 



veryone in the University. These in- 

 cluded an aquarium and a marine 

 laboratory on the ground floor, labo- 

 ratories and class-rooms over them, 



vhilst another large hall and 

 accessory rooms formed an extension 

 of the present museum to Butts 

 Wynd, these filling up the north- 

 western corner of the quadrangle. 

 Unfortunately, though sympathetic, 

 Mr. Gladstone's Government could 

 not afford the funds, and ever since 

 the condition has been clamant. It 

 is true the University might have 

 provided the funds, for it has built 

 large additions in the shape of new- 

 class-rooms and a physical laboratory, 

 and appropriated 5000Z. of the Car- 

 negie grant for endowing the 

 chemical research laboratory, the 

 munificpnt gift of Prof. Purdie. The 

 department of zoology, however, had 

 to wait. Thus it happened that, after 

 the death of Prof. Pettigrew, his 

 ■widow resolved to erect a memorial 

 to him in the form of the spacious 

 ne\y museum at the Bute Medical 

 Buildings, a site which in itself is 

 full of reminiscences of the long-continued efforts of 

 the deceased professor and a colleague — supported by 

 the late Lord Bute and the medical graduates of the 

 University — for securing two anni mcdici at St. 

 Andrews, the other three years being intended for 

 Dundee. Moreover, as he was a former custodian 

 of the old museum, the gift of this memorial of Prof. 

 Pettigrew is peculiarly appropriate. 



Accordingly, plans of the new museum were pre- 

 f)ared by Messrs. James Gillespie and Scott, architects, 

 ">t. Andrews (to whom this article owes its illustra- 



ions), and the negotiations between Mrs. Pettigrew 



NO. 2197, VOL. 88] 



and the University Court were energetically carried out 

 by my colleague, Prof. Musgrove, who, indeed, super- 

 intended the operations from first to last. Now the 

 entire structure has been completed and furnished 

 with electric light, and the cases (jointly provided by 

 Mrs. Pettigrew and the University) have been erected 

 in the great hall, where the celebration banquet 

 was held last September. These cases are of 

 the most modern tj'pe, viz. of iron, each wall- 

 case carrying a door composed of a single 

 sheet of plate-glass 9 feet by 5 feet, larger 



Fig. I. — From (Wtsi) of the New I'oll- IVtligrcw Museum. 



sheets of glass occurring in the central cases on 

 the floor. 



The museum (Fig. 1) faces the west, close to the 

 line of trees skirting the long walk of St. Mary's 

 College, and is appended to the Bute Medical Build- 

 ings, from which access is gained by a fireproof door 

 on each flat. Externally it has the botanic garden 

 on three sides, and, when the approaches arc widened, 

 public access from Queen's Terrace and West Burn 

 Lane will be facilitated; yet as regards position it 

 is perhaps less in the current of visitors than the old 

 museum in the United College. 



