TRANSACTlOXS OF THE SECTIONS. 139 



ages, examples of variation, and preparations of the internal structure should also 

 appear. It would therefore seem at first sight as if a length of at least 12,000 

 feet would be required ; but this may be very much reduced. The spaces provided 

 for the Cetacea in the sequel of this paper are 26 feet wide and from 20 down 

 to_ 12 feet high ; therefore all but the largest whales can be placed side by side, 

 with their respective skeletons suspended over them, and the young, varieties, 

 and preparations can be placed alongside without requiring additional lengths. 

 But allowing for the numbers being "very much extended," the total length 

 will certainly exceed a mile, and will therefore, as stated above, fill the museum 

 now building. The number of volumes now iu the J5ritish Museum Librarv ex- 

 ceeds a million, and is said to double itself in fifteen years. Thus in half a gene- 

 ration hence the books will have so much increased as not to leave room for either 

 of_ the great_ collections, viz. {a) the Arts and Curiosities, and (h) the Natural 

 History, which will also have increased ; and especially so if the present unex- 

 hibited portions of the collections should be exhibited, as they ought to be. 

 13r. J. E. Gray says, in a letter to the present writer : — " The space proposed [at 

 S. Kensington] is very small, not more than we have at present ; and there is a great 

 want of room for the unexhibited portion of the collection, not uearlv as much as 

 we have here" (Urit. Mus.). And he advocates the Arts and Curiosities being 

 placed in the museum now building : and, in truth, that appears to be the judicious 

 and inevitable conclusion, because it is simply impossible to build at S. Kensington 

 one of the usual rectangular museums of only three (? four) stories, which shall 

 hold all the specimens illustrating Zoologj-, Botany, Mineralogv, and Pah^ontology, 

 without spreading it over some 8 or 9 acres (worth £100,000), and an unneces- 

 sarily vast space to walk over. It would cause sad confusion to fit up the present 

 new building for Natural History, and afterwards to alter it for the reception of 

 the Arts and Curiosities. 



Proposed New Museum. — This will contain 2| miles nearly (in addition to the 

 auxiliary Cetacea-room of ].3o6 feet) of spaces and glass cases, for the Vertebrata 

 and fossils, and to be called the Animal Gallery. This gallery will also contain 

 880 window-cases covered with plate glass, each G feet long by '3 feet wide {i.e. a 

 mile long by a yard wide), the whole well lighted by 880 large non-transparent 

 glass windows — mainly for the Invertebrata. For 'Plants, Lecture-rooms, and 

 Librarj-, an area of 57,000 superficial feet is provided (=1J- acre nearly), and for 

 Mineralogy 50,000 superficial feet (li acre and more) ; these would be lighted by a 

 circular non-transparent glass roof, 320 feet in diameter. All these spaces will'be 

 divided into a suitable number of separate rooms by non-transparent glass parti- 

 tions, so that (for example) only one species of Cetacean can be seen by each 

 person at once, to avoid confusion ; and galleries would be provided at half the 

 height for seeing closely all the very large specimens. The writer therefore pro- 

 poses to take 3§ acres at the angle formed by Prince Albert Road with Gore Road, 

 and forming a square of 400 feet ; of this area the angles would be occupied by various 

 auxiliary offices, &c. The central circular museum would be carried up to the 

 height of twelve stories or ICO feet, and would be 344 feet in diameter; and access 

 could be gained up or down in a few seconds, to any floor, at a cost of a hd., by 

 means of an hydraulic hoist worked by a small steam-engine. The entrance wouli 

 be by a porch 20 feet square, lighted by a glass roof, and containing in plate-glass 

 cases busts in marble of the most eminent naturalists, dead and living. On en- 

 tering the museum, to the right would be the Animal Gallery, which would form 

 an inclined plane, rising 1 in 47, and afterwards 1 in 94, and the heights of gallery 

 varying from 20 down to 9 feet. On the right as you ascend would be the windows 

 and window-cases, and on the left spaces surrounded by brass railings for the 

 Cetacea: next in order all the other living animals being VertebraFes; when 

 they have all been placed, the extinct animals will succeed in plate-glass cases, 

 behind which would be the work-rooms all the way to the top of the building. 

 The order would be, first, the latest vertebrate fossils, then the other vertebrate fossils 

 according to age, the oldest being at the top. Those who wished to see the fossils 

 in the usual order would always have the option of ascending by the hoist to begin. 

 The circular form has been chosen because a square of equal area would have a cir- 

 cumference of 130 feet greater length of wall and window, which, multiplied bv thg 



