8o THE MUSEUM OF THE vn 



reception; but in 1806, the lease of the premises having 

 expired, it was removed temporarily to a house in Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields, adjoining the College of Surgeons, while the building 

 in which it was destined to be lodged was preparing for its 

 reception. This building, towards the erection of which, 

 Parliament contributed the sum of 27,500, was completed 

 and first opened to visitors in 1813. 



The museum was greatly enlarged entirely at the expense 

 of the College in 1835, and a still more important addition, 

 that of the great Eastern hall, was completed in 1855. 

 Towards the expense of this, Parliament contributed a further 

 grant of 15,000, the whole of the rest of the expenses of the 

 purchase of the site, the building and the annual maintenance 

 of the museum, having been borne by the College. 



In accepting the Hunterian Collection, the College of 

 Surgeons undertook a heavy responsibility, weightier perhaps 

 than was contemplated at the time. Although not required 

 by the letter of the contract to do more than preserve 

 Hunter's specimens, the College undertook the charge in the 

 spirit of the founder, and thus made itself responsible for 

 maintaining such a collection as should meet the requirements 

 of the ever-expanding and vigorous young science to which it 

 ministers. Hunter's collection was held to be the nucleus 

 of a national biological museum, and its preservation and 

 augmentation by the College has certainly prevented the 

 formation of such a collection by the State. 



Hunter was no specialist, and even after eliminating the 

 non-biological subjects before alluded to, a very miscellaneous 

 collection remained; illustrations of life in all its aspects, 

 in health and in disease ; specimens of botany, zoology, 

 palaeontology, anatomy, physiology, and every branch of 

 pathology ; preparations made according to all the methods 

 then known; stuffed birds, mammals and reptiles, fossils, 

 dried shells, corals, insects and plants ; bones and articulated 

 skeletons ; injected, dried, and varnished vascular preparations ; 

 dried preparations of hollow viscera ; mercurial injections, 

 dried and in spirit; vermilion injections; dissected pre- 

 parations in spirit of both vegetable and animal structures, 

 natural and morbid; undissected animals in spirit, showing 



