394 Miscellaneous. 



has no estimate of the number of specimens of the various classes 

 of animals existing in the collection of 1836. 



" Mr. Gray believes that he will not be very far wrong when he 

 states, first, that the zoological collection is now at least ten times as 

 numerous in kinds and specimens as it was in the year 1836 ; and 

 secondly, that nearly three times as much space is now devoted to its 

 display and arrangement. He begs to add, that nearly one-half of 

 the additional specimens are kept in rooms on the basement, which 

 are only accessible to the public ou special permission." 



" July 5tli, 1851. 

 " In 1836 the zoological collections occupied 13,745 square feet ; in 

 1851 they occupy 36,600 square feet. To arrange the present col- 

 lections to be accessible to the visitors, they would require at least 

 20,000 more. 



" N.B. This is independent of the space that would be required if 

 the recent osteological specimens and the fossil ones were arranged 

 together, so as to make them useful to the zoologist and palceonto- 

 logist." 



Some of our contemporaries, while they press the necessity of giving 

 greater space to the Natural-History collection in the British Mu- 

 seum, at the same time advocate the principle of centralization, and 

 would merge the .various public collections into this one. We cannot 

 think this advisable. In the first place, the resources of the Britisli 

 Museum alone always have been, and are always likely to be, more 

 than a match for its accommodation ; and in the second place, how- 

 ever useful it may be to have Societies centralized under one roof, it 

 should be remembered that it is a very different thing, and may not 

 be so useful, to have various collections merged into one collection. 

 Keepers and conservators are but men, and have their whims and 

 oddities, likings and dislikings, personal or otherwise, very much like 

 other people. Suppose, fifty years hence, that all the public zoo- 

 logical specimens in England arc gathered together into the Britisli 

 Museum, and are placed under the curatorship of Director A. Sup- 

 pose that you and Director A are working at the same point, 

 or have had a controversy in print, accompanied with personalities 

 (such things have been known to occur in the scientific world), do 

 you expect that peculiar facilities will be afforded you for examining 

 that collection, if you want to do so ? Not if you know human na- 

 ture. And therefore we maintain that it is a very good thing not to 

 centralize too much ; to be able to go to Director B, curator of the other 

 zoological collection — who is not working at the same point, or who 

 is on very good terms with you, or who will iit any rate help you, 

 because he is not too fond of A. 



Centralize books, statues, pictures, then, as much as you pleas , 

 for centralization facilitates access, but beware how you centralize 

 Natural-History collections, or indeed any others whose nature is 

 such, that a wide discretion must be left to the curator in permitting 

 or denying examination. 



