Jtine 23, 1887] 



NATURE 



189 



K'nyal Highness the Princess Victoria," consisting of a pair of 



e pretty and interesting little animals the Stanley Musk- 



!. J)uring the fifty years that have eiap-;ed since this first- 



ided mark of interest in the Society on the part of her pre- 



Majesty, the Queen and her family have never failed to 



V their regard for its welfare whenever any opportunity has 



n, of which the acceptance of the Presidency by the late 



ice Consort, on the death of the Earl of Derby in 1851, was 



of the most signal instances. The advantages which the 



lety has received from the numerous donations to the 



Menagerie, and the constant kindly interest shown in its general 



progress by H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, are so continually 



before the observation of the Fellows, that I need scarcely 



do more than allude to them here, beyond stating that in no 



year of the Society's existence has the number of visitors to the 



(iardens, or the Society's income, been so great as in 1876, when 



the large collection of animals brought from India by Ilis Royal 



Highness formed the special object of attraction. 



Except for the collection, necessarily of limited extent, 

 exhibited in the Tower, and a few others having their origin in 

 commercial enterprise (as Mi-. Crosse's menagerie at Exeter 

 Change, and the various itinerant wild-beast shows), there 

 were, before the foundation of the Society's Gardens, 

 little means in the country of gaining knowledge of 

 the strange forms of exotic animal life with which 

 the world abounds. An extensive, well-arranged, and well- 

 kept collection, where the circumstances of exhibition 

 were more favourable than in the institutions just referred to, 

 seemed then to fulfil a national need, as the rapidly acquired 

 popularity of the Society already alluded to testifies. Indeed, 

 when we consider the amount of enjoyment and instruction 

 which has been afforded to the 24,572,405 visitors who are regis- 

 tered as having entered our Gardens from their first opening in 

 1828 to the end of last year, it is easy to realize what a loss 

 the country would have sustained if they had not existed. There 

 was a period, it is true, in which they fell rather low in popular 

 favour, the record of 1847 showing both the smallest number of 

 visitors and the lowest income of any year in the Society's 

 existence. A new era of activity in the management of the 

 .Society's affairs was then happily inaugurated, which resulted in 

 a prosperity which has continued ever since, with only slight 

 fluctuations, arising from causes easy to be understood — -a pro- 

 sperity to which the scientific knowledge, zeal, and devotion to 

 the affairs of the Society of our present Secretary, ably seconded 

 in all matters of detail by the Resident Superintendent, have 

 greatly contributed. 



One of the greatest improvements which have been gradually 

 effected in the Gardens in recent years is the erection of larger, 

 more commodious, and more substantial buildings for the accom- 

 modation of the animals than those that existed before. A few 

 examples will suffice to illustrate the successive steps that have 

 been taken in this direction. The primary habitation of the 

 lions and other large feline animals was the building on the 

 north side of the canal, which many of us may remember as a 

 Reptile-house, and which has been lately restored as a dwelling- 

 place for the smaller Carnivora. The Council Reports of the 

 ]ieriod frequently speak of the bad accommodation it afforded to 

 the inmates, the consequent injury to their health, and the dis- 

 agreeable effects on visitors from the closeness of the atmosphere. 

 In September 1843, the terrace, with its double row of cages 

 beneath, was completed ; and the Report of the following 

 sjiring, speaking of this as "one of the most important works 

 f;ver undertaken at the Gardens," congratulates the Society upon 

 the fact that the anticipations of the increased health of this 

 interesting portion of the collection, resulting from a free expo- 

 sure to the external air, and total absence of artificial heat, 

 have been fully realized. The effects of more air and greater 

 exercise were indeed said to have become visible almost imme- 

 • liately. Animals which were emaciated and sickly before their 

 removal became plump and sleek in a fortnight after, and the 

 appetites of "11 were so materially increased that they began to 

 kill and eat each other. This, however, led to an immediate 

 increase in their allowance of food, since which time, it is stated, 

 no further accidents of the kind have occurred. As this 

 structure, looked upon at that period as so great an improvement 

 upon its predecessors, still remains, though adapted for other 

 inmates, we all have an opportunity of contrasting the size of 

 its dens and the provision it affords generally for the health and 

 comfort of the animals and the convenience of visitors, with 

 those of the magnificent building which superseded it in 1876. 



In the Report of the year 1840 it is stated that the only work 

 of considerable magnitude undertaken since the last anniversary 

 was the erection of the " New Monkey-house," and the Council 

 speak with great satisfaction of the substantial nature of the 

 structure and the superior accommodation which its internal 

 arrangements are calculated to afford to its inmates. 



Many of us may remember this building, which stood on the 

 space now cleared in the centre of the Gardens. Twenty-four 

 years after its erection, in their Report dated April 1864, we 

 find the Council speaking of it as "what is at present perhaps 

 the most defective portion of the Society's Garden establish- 

 ment," and the erection of a second " New Monkey-house " was 

 determined upon. This is the present light and comparatively 

 airy and spacious building, the superiority of which over the old 

 one in every respect is incontestable. 



Up to the year 1848 the only attempt which had been made to 

 familiarize the visitors with the structure and habits of animals 

 of the class Reptilia was by the occasional display of a pair of 

 pythons, which were kept closely covered in a box of limited 

 dimensions in one of the smaller Carnivora-houses. In 1849 the 

 building which had been rendered vacant by the removal of the 

 lions to the new terrace was fitted up with cases with plate-glass 

 fronts on a plan entirely novel in this country, and which for 

 many years afforded an instructive exhibition of the forms, 

 colours, and movements of many species of serpents, lizards, and 

 crocodiles. This house was a vast improvement upon anything 

 of the kind ever seen before ; but the contrast between it and 

 the present handsome and spacious building so recently erected 

 in the south-eastern corner of the grounds affords another illus- 

 tration of the great progress we are making. 



If time allowed I might also refer to the Elephant-house, 

 completed in 1870, to the Insect-house, opened in 1881, and to 

 various others of less importance. 



The erection of these houses has necessarily been a very 

 costly undertaking ; in fact, since what may be called the recon- 

 struction of the permanent buildings of the Gardens, which 

 commenced in the year i860, more than ;^5o,ooo has been 

 expended upon them. It is only in years of great prosperity, 

 when the Society's income has considerably exceeded its neces- 

 sarily large permanent expenditure, that works such as these 

 can be undertaken. 



Much as has been done in this direction, we must all admit 

 that there is still more required. The buildings of to-day 

 will, we may even hope, some day seem to our successors what 

 the former ones appear to us. The old idea of keeping animals 

 in small cramped cages and dens, inherited from the Tower and 

 the travelling wild-beast shows, still lingers in many places. We 

 have a responsibility to our captive animals, brought from their 

 native wilds, to minister to our pleasure and instruction, beyond 

 that of merely supplying them with food and shelter. The more 

 their comfort can be studied, the roomier their place of captivity, 

 the more they are surrounded by conditions reproducing those 

 of their native haunts, the happier they will be, and the more 

 enjoyment and instruction we shall obtain when looking at 

 them. Many of our newest improvements are markedly in 

 this direction. I may especially mention the new inclosure for 

 wild sheep near the Lion-house in the South Garden, with its 

 picturesque rock-work and fall of water, and the large aviary for 

 herons and similar birds just completed on what used to be 

 called the Water- Fowls' Lawn. 



All such improvements can, however, only be carried out 

 by the continued aid of the public, either by becoming ] erma- 

 nently attached to the Society as Fellows or by visiting the 

 Gardens. I trust that this brief record of the principal events 

 of the Society's history will show that such support is not 

 undeserved by those who have had the management of its 

 affairs. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — In the Natural Sciences Tripos, Part I., the 

 following women students were placed in the first class : E. E. 

 Field, A. J. Flavell, and M. M. Smith, all of Newnham 

 College. 



In Part II. the following men were placed in the first class in 

 alphabetical order, the subject for which they were so placed 

 being named: — Adie, Trinity, and Couldridge, Emmanuel (Che- 

 mistry) ; Durham, Christ's, and Edgeworth, Caius (l'hysiology)i; 



