ADDRESS TO BIOLOGICAL SECTION, BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 427 
written about them—alas! not always with the even temper which 
renders the study of natural science a delight and a blessing ; 
others would remind you of having been objects of your wonder 
when you saw them depicted in scientific books, or in some 
household work ; whilst not a few could tell you pitiful tales of 
the enthusiastic collector who, braving the dangers of a foreign 
climate, sacrificed health or life to his favourite pursuit. 
Collections thus obtained, thus cherished, representing the 
labours of thousands of men, and intended to instruct hundreds 
of thousands, are worth preserving, displaying, and cultivating. 
No cost has been spared in housing them; let no cost be spared 
in providing proper fittings to receive them, a sufficient staff to 
look after them, and the necessary books to study them. 
What we chiefly require in a well-constructed exhibition-case 
is that it should be as perfectly dust-proof as possible, that it 
should lock well and easily, and yet that it should be of a light 
structure. Everyone who has gone through a gallery of our old- 
fashioned museums must have noticed how much those broad 
longitudinal and transverse bars of the wooden frame of the front 
of a case interfere with the inspection of the objects behind them, 
hiding a head here, a tail there, or cutting an animal into two 
more or less unequal portions. TIll-constructed cases have brought 
zoological collections as much into bad repute as bad stuffers; and 
if it be thought that a pound could be saved in the construction 
of a case, that pound will probably entail a permanent expense of 
a pound a year. Now, all the requisites of a good exhibition case 
can be obtained by using metal wherever it can be substituted for 
wood; and, although its use is more expensive than that of wood, 
you will join with me in the hope that no mistaken desire of 
economy will prevail now, as the time has arrived to furnish our 
priceless collections with adequate fittings. 
Probably all of those present are aware that the formation of 
a Natural History Library has been urged almost from the very 
first day on which the removal of the Natural History collections 
to South Kensington was proposed. But the cost and extent of 
such a library have been very variously estimated. And I am 
sorry to say that it is, I believe, owing to expressions of opinion 
on the part of those who ought to know better, that the cost of 
this library was considerably underrated when the removal to 
South Kensington was determined upon. We cannot blame the 
