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ADDRESS TO BIOLOGICAL SECTION, BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 429 
part of the collections. It is for this reason that I wish to see it 
rendered as perfect as possible with respect to the older 
publications (many of which are getting scarcer year by year), 
as well as to the most recent. Whether or not a similarly perfect 
collection of Natural History books exists in some other place in 
London, is another question with which I am not concerned. 
The general Natural Library evidently ought to contain a perfect 
set of books on Natural History, irrespective of other claims; but 
to have Natural History collections in one place, and the books 
relating to them in another, miles away, will produce as much 
inconvenience as is experienced by the person who puts the powder 
into one barrel of his gun and the shot into the other. 
If the British Museum (for the collections will remain united 
under this old time-honoured name, though locally separated) 
continues to receive that support from the Government to which 
it is justly entitled, I have no doubt that it will not only fulfil all 
the aims of a National Collection, but that it will be also able to 
give to the kindred provincial institutions the aid which has 
recently been claimed on their behalf. Under an Act of Parliament 
which was passed in the previous Session, and which empowers 
the Trustees to part with duplicate specimens, several of those 
Museums have already received collections of zoological objects. 
But I consider it my duty to caution those who are in charge of 
those Museums to be careful as to the manner in which they avail 
themselves of this opportunity. Well-preserved duplicates of the 
rarer and more valuable vertebrate animals are very scarce in the 
British Museum, the funds for purchase being much too small tu 
permit the acquisition of duplicates. What we possess of this 
kind of duplicates are generally deteriorated specimens, and 
therefore ought not to be received by Provincial Museums. On 
the other hand, our invertebrate series, especially of Mollusks and 
Insects, will always offer a certain number of well-preserved 
duplicate specimens and a sufficient inducement for Provincial 
Museums to select their desiderata. 
It has been suggested that, as the British Museum has 
correspondents and collectors in almost every part of the globe, 
and has therefore greater facilities for obtaining specimens than 
any other institution, it should systematically acquire duplicates, 
and form a central repository, from which Provincial Museums 
could draw their supplies. If the necessary funds to carry out 
