428 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Government that they hesitated for years before they acceded to 
the pressing representations of the Trustees of the British 
Museum, to begin with its formation, when they were told by 
naturalists that the cost of such a library would be something 
between £10,000 and £20,000. I could hardly believe my eyes 
when I read only a few weeks ago, in the leader of a weekly 
periodical specially devoted to science, that “had the Trustees put 
aside a thousand a year for this purpose when it was first 
determined to remove the Natural History collections ten years 
ago, there would have been by this time in existence a library 
fully adequate to the purpose.” The writer must have either a 
very poor idea of the objects and work of a National Museum, or 
an imperfect knowledge of the extent of the literature of Natural 
History. £10,000 might suffice to purchase a good ornithological 
library, and £1000 would purchase the annual additions to all the 
various branches of natural history; but the former sum would 
be much too small if the purchase of those works only were 
intended which are required for the technical work of naming 
animals, plants, fossils, and minerals. A better calculation was 
made by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 
British Museum in 1860, who stated that the formation of a 
Natural History Library would cost about £30,000 at the present 
time (1860). Considering that twenty years have elapsed since, 
and that this part of the literature has shown year by year a 
steady increase, we must put our estimate considerably higher 
than the writer of that article. 
With the aid of some of my friends who know, from their daily 
occupation, the market value of Natural History works, I made a 
calculation some years ago, and we came to the conclusion that a 
complete Natural History Library will cost £70,000; and, 
unpalatable as this statement may be to those who have advocated 
the removal of the Natural History collections, and therefore 
must be held responsible for this concomitant expense, it will be 
found to be true. It will be satisfactory to you to learn that the 
Government have at last sanctioned the expenditure of half that 
amount. 
Now, in my opinion, such a library formed in connection with 
the National Museum should not be reserved for the use of the 
officials, but I would recommend that it should be accessible to 
the general class of students in the same manner as any other 
