392 



NATURE 



[August 21, 1890 



effectively, it is necessary to include here an account of 

 the collections in the Natural History Department, which, 

 however, remain in their old quarters — a very suitable 

 building on Leinster Lawn. It has for a pendant a 

 similar building, the National Gallery of Painting, which 

 is, however, under different management. The relative 

 positions of the five buildings may be compared to a 

 capital H, in which the cross bar represents Leinster 

 House, and the other portions of the letter the four 

 buildings which have been referred to, with Leinster 

 Lawn and the courtyard of Leinster House between them. 

 Close by there is another group of buildings, which con- 

 tains the class-rooms of the Metropolitan School of Art. 



Leinster House, which is comparable in a sense to Bur- 

 hngton House, affords accommodation to the officers of 

 the Science and Art Department in administrative charge 

 of the various institutions, and also to the Royal Dublin 

 Society, which, since it has been relieved of its mange- 

 mentofthe several institutions, has considerably developed 

 its various functions in science and agriculture ; for the 

 due carrying out of the latter it has provided itself with 

 extensive show yards at Ball's Bridge in the suburbs of 

 Dublin, where the cattle shows, &c., have acquired an 

 importance and success never attained while they con- 

 tinued to be held in the City premises. 



The Society is possessed, moreover, of a large private 

 library, and its members enjoy various privileges, such as 

 the use of a general reading-room, free admission to 

 meetings, lectures, &c. The Society has recently entered 

 upon several new lines for the development and encourage- 

 ment of the arts and industries of Ireland. 



Returning to the Museum— the building which contains 

 the natural history collection consists of two large rooms 

 or halls, one on the basement and the other on the first 

 floor, the latter having two galleries. The basement room 

 contains the systematic collections of fish, reptiles, a 

 number of large recent and fossil skeletons, and groups 

 illustrative of the geographical distribution of animals. 



In the lobby of the first-floor room there is a special 

 collection of the mammals of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 and in the room itself the main systematic collection of 

 mammals is arranged in a row of large central cases, and 

 the invertebrate collections in table and wall cases at the 

 sides. As in some of the other groups, there are special 

 collections of Irish invertebrates. 



The first gallery contains a general collection of stuffed 

 birds, and a special collection of Irish birds. In the 

 second gallery there are general collections of insects, 

 and of birds' nests and eggs. A room off this gallery 

 contains a large collection of birds' skins arranged in 

 glazed drawers, for study. Besides the above, there are 

 considerable collections of invertebrates— especially of 

 insects — in the curators' rooms. 



A large annex, which was formerly occupied tempor- 

 arily by a portion of the art collections, has been made 

 use of for the display of the palaeontological collections, 

 which are of some extent and importance. The specimens 

 of plant and animal fossils are for the most part arranged 

 systematically ; they include large numbers of fossils 

 from the Sivalik Hills in India, and many well-known 

 casts of generalized types of animals. The special col- 

 lections, not incorporated, include an extensive one of 

 Irish mammals. Sir Richard Griffith's collection of Irish 

 Carboniferous and Silurian fossils, and several collections 

 of Arctic fossils made by Sir F. Leopold McClintock and 

 others. 



From this annex a passage affords access to the new 

 building which is about to be opened. In the first two 

 rooms the collections of fossils, rocks, and minerals, which 

 have been made by the Geological Survey of Ireland, are 

 exhibited. In an adjoining room there is the general 

 Museum collection of minerals, with a small one of 

 meteorites. The next room is devoted to a large relief 

 map of Ireland, coloured geologically. It is on the 



NO. 1086, VOL. 42] 



horizontal scale of one inch to a mile, the vertical scale, 

 as is usual, being considerably exaggerated. In this room 

 there are also a number of photographs representing 

 natural phenomena, including some large transparencies- 

 which were presented by the United States Government. 

 The corresponding rooms on the other side of the building 

 are devoted respectively to (i) Greece and Rome; (2) 

 Egypt and Assyria ; (3) Ethnography, a very extensive 

 and important collection ; (4) Musical instruments ; (5) 

 India and Persia. 



The Central Court, from which these rooms open off, is 

 devoted mainly to casts of antique and mediaeval sculp- 

 tures, and to a large number of models of statues and 

 busts by the late J. H. Foley. Close by is the rotunda, 

 a hall which has been compared to Napoleon's tomb. It 

 contains casts of antique sculptures, and in the centre a 

 group of three bronze guns, with their carriages, &c.^ 

 which were taken at Sobraon and Maharajpur, and pre- 

 sented to Lord Gough by the Honourable East India 

 Company. 



Ascending to the first floor, we meet in succession 

 rooms devoted to (l) textiles (lace and embroidery) : 

 (2) wood carving ; (3) glass and ceramics ; (4) furniture ;. 

 (5) casts of ivories and metal-work ; and on the opposite 

 side (i) woven materials, models of looms, &c. ; (2) 

 industrial models ; (3) and (4) rooms intended for 

 the famous collections of Irish antiquities made by the 

 Royal Irish Academy ; and (5) arms and armour. The 

 gallery of the Central Court contains a number of casts 

 of Celtic antiquities, a large collection of metal- work,, 

 and electrotypes, besides many other objects of con- 

 siderable interest. In the gallery of the rotunda there 

 are a number of casts of modern sculptures, &c. 



On the south side of the building there is a second 

 floor containing four rooms ; these have been allotted to 

 the Herbarium and Botanical Museum, the collections 

 included in which are considerable, having been brought 

 together from many different quarters. They have not 

 yet, however, been arranged for public inspection. The 

 various collections of Cryptogams are, perhaps, the most 

 valuable. There are also several well-known collections 

 of Irish plants. 



It will be seen from the above sketch that this Museum 

 covers a very wide field. This will be still further appa- 

 rent from a study of the general " Guide " which is about 

 to be issued. 



There are some special features in the arrangement of 

 the specimens which may be touched upon briefly. The 

 objects in the Museum are largely provided with fully 

 descriptive labels and maps. In the mounting of the 

 specimens many novel devices have been made use of, 

 and some ingenious contrivances have been founded upon 

 inventions which, though used in American museums, 

 have not hitherto been adopted in Europe. 



The Museum is open free to the public daily, Sunday 

 and two week-day evenings being included. The daily 

 average attendance is about 600, and there is every reason 

 for believing that the institution, which is now about to be 

 fairly launched on its more extended career, will become 

 increasingly popular and increasingly instructive to the 

 people of Ireland. 



The National Library is being arranged in its new 

 quarters, upon principles which have been for many 

 years the subject of earnest consideration and study by 

 the hbrarian, Mr. William Archer, F.R.S. 



The principal public reading-room is a very handsome 

 apartment, capable of accommodating 200 readers. With 

 the exception of a few works of reference, such as 

 dictionaries, &c., the books are all arranged in stores, 

 which are close at hand, in one of the wings of the 

 building. These stores are in five stories, which are 

 connected by ordinary (not spiral) stairs of low gradient,, 

 and the books are arranged on free standing presses, 

 within easy reach of hand and eye ; thus no ladders are 



