194 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. X 



should be so disposed as best to assist the progress of 

 Commerce and the Arts." It demanded further a 

 Zoological and a Botanical Garden, where the living 

 specimens could be studied. 



Some of these institutions existed, but were not 

 under state control. Others were already begun e.g. 

 that of Economic Zoology at South Kensington ; but 

 the value of the botanical collections was minimised 

 by want of concentration, while as to zoology "the 

 British Museum contains a magnificent collection of 

 recent and fossil animals, the property of the state, 

 but there is no room for its proper display and no 

 accommodation for its proper study. Its official 

 head reports directly neither to the Government nor 

 to the governing body of the institution. ... It is 

 true that the people stroll through the enormous 

 collections of the British Museum, but the sole result 

 is that they are dazzled and confused by the multi- 

 plicity of unexplained objects, and the man of science 

 is deprived thrice a week of the means of advancing 

 knowledge." 



The agitation of 1859-60 bore fruit in due season, 

 and within twenty years the ideal here sketched was 

 to a great extent realised, as any visitor to the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington can 

 see for himself. 



The same principles are reiterated in his letter of 

 January 25, 1868, to the Commissioners of the Man- 

 chester Natural History Society, who had asked his 

 advice as to the erection of a museum. But to the 



