THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1873 
THE ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS IN THE 
INDIA HOUSE 
N former days the “Hon. East India Company,” in 
their House in Leadenhall Street, possessed a valu- 
able Museum of Natural History. Itcontained specimens 
in ail branches of science from the Company’s Oriental 
possessions, partly contributed by public servants who 
had been attached as naturalists to missions and deputa- 
tions sent out by the Indian Government, and partly by 
gentlemen of the civil and military services of the 
Company, as presents to the Court of Directors. 
The following well-known names were amongst those 
who contributed to the collection :—Dr. Francis Bucha- 
nan Hamilton, Dr. Horsfield, Sir Stamford Raffles, Mr. 
Wallich, Mr. Reeves, Mr. McClelland, Dr. Helfer, Mr, 
T. T. Pearson, Dr. Falconer, Mr. Hodgson, Col. Sykes, 
Mr. Ezra Downes, Gen. Strachey, Col. Tytler, and Dr. 
Cantor. The list of contributors embraced, in fact, all 
those naturalists and collectors to whom science is mostly 
indebted for the knowledge we at present possess of the 
Fauna of India and the adjoining countries. 
Amongst collections of special importance belonging to 
the East India Museum, may be noticed Dr. Horsfield’s 
collections from Java, those made by Mr, Finlayson 
during Crawford’s Mission to Siam, those of Col. Sykes 
during his survey at the Dukhun, the entomological col- 
lections made by Dr, Cantor in Chusan, and the same 
naturalist’s collections from Singapore; the zoological 
collections of Sir W. Snow Harris, made during his 
mission to Abyssinia, and those of Commander Jones 
during his survey of the Euphrates and Tigris. 
In 1851 the late Dr. Horsfield, who up to the time of 
his decease was Curator of the Museum, published a 
catalogue of the mammalia in the collection, which, in 
addition to an exact enumeration of the specimens, con- 
tains many valuable notes upon the habits, range, and 
other peculiarities of the species. This was followed a 
few years later by a catalogue of the birds of the collec- 
tion, which was prepared by Mr. F. Moore, the assistant 
in the museum, under Dr. Horsfield’s superintendence. 
Of the catalogue of birds two volumes were published, 
the first in 1854, and the second in 1858. The third, 
which was intended to have completed the work, has 
never appeared. More than a thousand species, however, 
are catalogued in the two first volumes, most of them 
represented by several specimens. 
When after the Indian mutiny the absorption of the 
“ Honourable East India Company” by Her Majesty’s 
Government took place, the museum of the Company was 
moved to Fife House, Whitehall, as a temporary resting- 
place. The natural history collections were exhibited in this 
building in a very imperfect way, but it was well under- 
stood that they were only deposited here pending the 
construction of the new India Office, where abundance of 
space for their display was promised. 
The time arrived when the square-towered palace in 
St. James’s Park was finished, and the various branches 
of the India Office moved into it.. So far, however, from 
there being any more space found for the natural history 
No, 181—VoL., vit. 
NATURE 
457 
collections it was now discovered that there was no room 
for them at all. The whole of them were packed up in 
boxes and placed in store, and so remain to the present 
day, so that it is impossible to get at them for any avail- 
able purpose even when the examination of a particular 
individual specimen is specially required. 
On more than one occasion in the course of scientific 
work the writer has had occasion to examine some of the 
specimens in the collection, but has been informed that 
they could not be got at amongst the mass of packages. 
Other working naturalists have met with similar replies 
to their applications, and even a Russian entomologist, I 
have been informed, whose principal motive in coming to 
England was to examine some of the insects in the collec- 
tion, had to return with his mission unaccomplished. 
In 1871 the late Lieut.-Col. Sykes, having had his 
attention called to the subject bya letter addressed to the 
Times, asked the Under-Secretary of State for India in 
the House of Commons “when the zoological collections 
in the India House would be accessible to zoologists.” 
The following is stated in the 7#es of March 15, 1871, 
to have been the reply given by the Under-Secretary :— 
“Tn reply to my honourable and gallant friend, I have 
to say that the zoological collections belonging to the 
Secretary of State in Council, are, to a certain extent, 
even now available to men of science, who can readily 
obtain admission to examine them. They examine them 
however, I am sorry to say, under great difficulties, and 
difficulties of which I do not see the end : for even if the 
Secretary of State in Council were to erect on his property 
in Charles Street, as he has sometimes been advised to 
do, a building more worthy to contain the great museum * 
and library which he possesses, than the garrets in which 
they are now stowed away, nearly the whole available 
space would be occupied by those Indian productions 
which it is important to bring under the notice of the 
commercial classes of this country, and pure science 
would, I fear, come off very badly.” 
The “ certain extent” to which, according to this reply, 
the collections are “eve now available to men of science,” 
may be judged of from what has been already stated. But 
in fact, it was ultimately admitted by the Under-Secre- 
tary, after a little pressure on the part of the questioner, 
that the collections were “boxed up;” nor has any 
change been made in their condition since that period. 
It must, I think, be obvious to all those who have read 
the statement above given that a gross wrong has been 
perpetrated in the present case. When the Imperial 
Government took possession of the late East India 
Company’s establishment, they were manifestly bound 
to perform the duties attached to it. To nail up the 
whole of the natural history collections in closed cases, 
and deposit them in acellar is a strange way of accepting 
the officium cum onere. Itis a wrong, not only to the 
labourers in science who have occasion to consult the 
collections, but also to the many distinguished officers 
of the late Company’s service, who contributed to form 
them. The longer the present state of things continues, 
the greater will the wrong become, as it is almost im- 
possible to prevent the ravages of insects in the case of 
specimens of natural history of any sort that are stowed 
away without periodical examination. 
It being, however, hopeless to expect that the India 
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