178 



NATURE 



[December 7, 191 1 



The building (Fig. i) is in the style of the English 

 Renaissance, thus agreeing with the Bute Medical 

 Buildings to which it is attached, and which wen- 

 erected by Lord Bute, the same architects having 

 prepared the plans. The main door faces the west 

 and Queen's Gardens, and there are two stories. .Al 

 each end of the roof is an open stonework canopy, 

 the monogram of Prof. Pettigrew and his widow 

 being engraved beneath. 



The sunk lloor contains long passages and spaces 

 for storage and ventilation, and gives access to pipes 

 and wires. The ground floor (Fig. 2) covers an area 

 of about 130 feet by 75 feet, the entrance, already 

 noted, being at the north-west corner, and leading to 

 a vestibule, shut off by swinging and partially glazed 

 doors, and a hall 65 feet long by 17 feet broad, w|ith 

 a spacious bow-window in the centre commanding 

 views of the ancient halls of St. Mary's College and 

 the principal's house, as well as the fine new Carnegie 

 Library. At the eastern end of the hall are blank 

 spaces which indicate where doors will in future open 

 into a large lecture-theatre (not yet built). The ethno- 

 logical collections will probably be placed in this hall. 

 A stair leads from the north-western end of the hall to 

 the upper floor, and in the spaces of the projecting 

 tow^er are sinks and lavatories. The west front is 

 devoted to teaching and administration, and is 



- Q3ounD! L QcQft . m- 



Fir. a. — For scale >es Fig. 3. 



separated by a long corridor from the main hall of 

 the museum. It contains from north to south a 

 curator's room, a class-room for practical zoology, 

 62 feet by 17 feet, a research-room, and a professor's 

 room, near which is a turret-stair leading to the upper 

 floor and to the roof. A corridor about 50 feet long 

 and 17 feet broad extends along the southern face, 

 with a spacious bow-window as in the north corridor ; 

 and. as the botanical department adjoins and com- 

 municates with its eastern end, it is probable that this 

 area will be devoted to the botanical collections. 



The main hall of the museum on this floor is 90 feet 

 long by 40 feet broad, and it passes upward to the 

 roof, so that large skeletons, such as those of ceta- 

 ceans, may be suspended in mid-air, rings and hooks 

 being fixed to the beams, whilst a belt of wood below 

 the cornice gives facilities for hanging pictures. The 

 roof is doubly glazed, the inner layer being formed of 

 muranese glass for diffusing the light, which is 

 northern throughout, except at the lateral windows of 

 the corridors. The floor is handsomely paved with 

 marble mosaic, a special gift of Mrs. Pettigrew. This 

 large hall will probably suffice for the mammals and 

 birds, and, it may be, for the reptiles. 



The upper floor (Fig. 3) has the same general area 

 as the ground floor; but, since the great hall goes to 

 the roof, only the western, northern, and southern gal- 

 leries are available for cases. The spacious western 

 gallery is about 122 feet long by 28 feet broad, and 



NO. 2197, VOL. 88] 



the inner borders of both it and the adjoining gal- 

 leries are flanked by a scries of Roman Dori< 

 columns, the effect of which is ag^reeable from a! 

 points of view. The entire upper floor is firep- 

 being composed of iron and concrete with solid i 

 locked maple blocks. The north and south gal 

 are each about 70 feet long by 17 feet wide, a 

 bow-window occurring in the centre of each. 



The extensive scries of spirit preparations of the 

 marine invertebrates (chiefly British), the coUectioi 

 of fishes and their eggs and early stages, will fiiu 

 space on the main part of this floor and along tli^ 

 northern corridor, but wall-cases are still r' 

 quired. Table-cases now in the old museum '.vi! 

 occupy much of the floor. The southern con ! : 

 which communicates by a door with the Bute M- c;c.i! 

 Buildings and is on a level with the department </ 

 geology, will probably contain the larger part of tli' 

 geological and mineralogical specimens. 



The munificence of Mrs. Pettigrew has thus solvt . 

 the long-continued problem of museum accom: 

 tion, while at the same time it has produced a 1. 

 memorial to a valued colleague, whose early i - 

 searches on the muscular fibres and nerves of tl; 

 mammalian heart, of the muscular fibres of tl.' 

 stomach and of the bladder, and whose ingenious e.\ 



i^fttdW- — f- — F — P — P — I — 1-— ■ 



_t-l 



f IG. 3. 



periments on flight and animal locomotion are worth 

 of all praise. Indeed, as regards flight, it needed b 

 a modern petrol engine to have raised Prof. Pet 

 grew's marvellous apparatus in the air, instead > 

 dapping along the ground under the weight of 

 heavy steam-engine. W. C. M. 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE AFRICAN 

 FAUNA AND ITS RELATION TO TROPICA. 

 DISEASES.' 



WHEN educated opinion in Europe, especially ; 

 England, could take stock of the ravages > 

 British and Boer hunters who were exterminatin. 

 the wonderful mammalian fauna of South .Afri'^ > 

 movement set in in the opposite direction for 

 ing with the British, German, French, and Bl , 

 Governments to discourage or prohibit the desiru^ 

 tion of wild life in their African territories. Th 

 desire to preserve the fascinating aspects of wi! 

 nature began to take a more acute shape in the In- 

 decade of the nineteenth century, and various Afric . 

 administrators, who were naturalists as wellasspon- 

 men, induced their Governments to allow them ' 

 proclaim certain areas in Africa to be game reserv' 

 in which more or less complete protection w; 

 afforded to beasts, birds, and reptiles. The Briti~ 



1 " Further Correspondence Relating to the Preservation of WildAnim'- 

 in Africa." [Cd. 5775.] (H.M. Stationery Office.) Price SJ*/. 



