TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 125 



that some system of construction of tlie new Museum should be adopted whereby 

 the public can be admitted all day and every day to -view the collections without 

 interfering with the scientilic work of the establishment or with the special exami- 

 nation of objects by students. Tliere is, so far as I know, only one plan by which 

 this object can be carried out — namely, by arranging the exhibited objects in large 

 wall-cases, to which access is obtainable from the back by doors opening into 

 work-rooms adjoining the exhibition-room. In this way any ordinaiy object can 

 be removed out of the series into the adjoining work-room, and returned to its 

 place without disturbing the public in front of the cases, just as any article can be 

 taken out of the shop windows in Regent Street without interfering with those 

 who are looking into them from the pavement outside. This system of exhibition 

 would be attended by the further very great advantage that the glass cases may be 

 hermetically sealed on the side towards the public, and the ingress of dirt and 

 dust thus prevented. Those who are acquainted with the filthy state of the speci- 

 mens in the public galleries of the British Museum, in spite of frequent cleansings 

 inflicted upon them, will readily appreciate the merit of this plan*. 



This collocation of the exhibition galleries and corresponding working-rooms being 

 insisted upon as of primary importance, the general form of the building must de- 

 pend somewhat upon the site on which it is to be placed. My own belief, however, 

 18 that a hollow square, or something approaching that form, will in many ways be 

 most convenient for a National Museum of Natural History, and the sketches 

 which I now exhibit, which have been prepared for me by my accomplished friend 

 Mr. Osbert Salvin, will serve to show the general plan of arrangement which I 

 propose. The building might be of three or four stories, since, in the system of 

 exhibition which I advocate, it would not be necessary to have top-lights. The 

 basement, which might be partly below the surface, would be dedicated to taxi- 

 dermy and to rooms for unpacking, storage, and mechanical work of all sorts. In 

 the outer galleries running round the whole length of the groimd story, I should 



firopose to arrange the entire series of vertebrates from the highest mammal to the 

 owest fish. The specimens, according to the system already spoken of, would be 

 placed in hermetically sealed glass cases along the inner walls of the galleries. The 

 inner series of rooms surrounding the interior of the hollow square would be the 

 working-rooms for the oflicers of the Museum and the students of natural history, 

 and would communicate with the glass cases on the inner side of the outer galle- 

 ries. Each set of working-rooms would, of course be in immediate apposition to 

 the glass cases containing the corresponding series of exhibited objects. TJie lights 

 to these working-rooms would be furnished from the inner sides of the hollow 

 square. 



In the first story of the building I should propose to arrange the series of inver- 

 tebrate animals in exactly the same way, with the rooms for officers and students 

 immediately adjoining them on the inner side. 



The third story might contain the botanical and mineralogical collections, and 

 perhaps certain others which it might not be possible to introduce into the general 

 series, imless room could be foimd for these collections in the second story. 



In a circular buUdiug, the centre of the hollow square, I should propose to place 

 the library above and lecture-theatre below. The libraiy might be connected by 

 light iron galleries with the different working-rooms, so that the students of every 

 department would have equally ready access to it. 



Such is a slight outline of the kind of building I would propose for a National 

 Museum of Natural History. It is, of course, a mere sketch, and there would be, 

 no doubt, many difliculties in the details to be surmounted, but none, I think, such 

 as an experienced architect would not be able to overcome. The advantages of 

 this plan would be : — 



1, The Museum might be opened to the public eveiy day, without interfering 



* In an admirable article on tliis subject in ' K^ature' for May 26, 1870, Prof. Flower 

 has attributed the original invention of this mode of exhibition to myself, I liaving first 

 brought it under his notice. It appears, however, from a subsequent communication to 

 'Nature' by Prof. Flower (June 2, 1870), that the same plan had been already proposed by 

 Dr. Hooker in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' for 1858, p. 749. I can only, therefore, claim to 

 be an (not the) original inventor of this method of arrangement. 



