58 



reported to have contained as many as 6720 specimens of 

 Vertebrated animals, and numerous additions were still 

 being made both by donations and by purchase. The rooms 

 in Leicester Square being found inconvenient for the pur- 

 pose, it -was finally resolved, after considerable discussion 

 of various sites, to transfer the collection to the Gardens 

 in the Kegent's Park ; and in 1843 the building on the 

 north side of the Tunnel which is now occupied as a lecture- 

 room on the upper floor and a store-room below was con- 

 structed and fitted up for its reception. 



Although the Museum was at one time looked upon 

 as a very important part of the Society's operations, 

 being spoken of as ''the centre of the Society^s scientific 

 usefulness"' (Report of Council, 1837), and one upon 

 which considerable sums of money were spent, it was 

 afterwards a cause of embarrassment from the difficulty 

 and expense of keeping it up in a state of efficiency ; and 

 when the Zoological Department of the British Museum 

 acquired such a development as to fulfil all the objects 

 proposed by the Society's collection, the uselessuess of en- 

 deavouring to maintain a second and inferior zoological 

 museum in the same city became apparent, and in 1856 it 

 was, as I think very wisely, determined to part with the 

 collection, the whole of the types being transferred to the 

 National Museum, and the remaining specimens to other 

 institutions where it was thought their value would be 

 most appreciated. 



Another enterprise in which the Fellows of the Society 

 were much interested in its early days was the Farm at 

 Kingston, the special object of which was thus defined : — 

 " It will be useful in receiving animals which may require 

 a greater range and more quiet than the Gardens at the 

 Regent's Park can afford. It is absolutely necessary for 

 the purpose of breeding and rearing young animals and 

 giving facilities for observations on matters of physiological 

 interest and research, and, above all, in making attempts to 

 naturalise such species as are hitherto rare or unknown in 

 this country." The Farm, however, apparently not fulfil- 

 ling the objects expected of it, and being a source of ex- 

 pense which the Society could not then well afford, was 

 gradually allowed to fall into neglect, and was finally aban- 

 doned in 1834. 



The mention of this establishment, however, causes me 

 to allude to one of the objects on which the Society laid 



