TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. — DErX. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 651 



Section D.— BIOLOGY. 



President of the Section — Richard Owen, C'.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., 



F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.8. i 



DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 

 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The Peesident delivered tlie following Address : — 



The recent construction of the edifice of the 'British Museum (Natural History), 

 Cromwell Road,' ' and the transference thereto of three of the Departments, the 

 systematic airangemeut of which in their respective galleries approaches closely to 

 completion, have left me little leisure in the present year for other scientific work. 

 The expression, moreover, in divers forms and degrees, of the satisfaction and 

 instruction such partial exhibition of the national treasures of natural history has 

 afforded to all classes of visitors since the galleries were open to the public, in 

 April last, encourages me to believe that a few words on this great additional 

 instrument in advancing Biological Science may not be unacceptable to the Section 

 of the British Association which I have now the honour to address. 



It is true that when we last met at Swansea, my accomplished colleague, Dr. 

 Albert Giinther, F.R.S., selected a general description of the building as the 

 subject of his address to Section D. 



I was unwilling then, in consideration of the time of the Section already given 

 to the matter, to respond to appeals of some of our fellow-members for information 

 as to how, and through whom, the new Museum came to be, and to be where it is ; 

 but now, honoured by my present position, I venture to hope that a brief outline 

 of its genetic history, which I have been preparing for publication in a fuller form, 

 may be condoned. 



In the actual phase of Biology, its cultivators, especially the younger genera- 

 tion, do not rest upon the determination and description, however minute and' 

 exhaustive, of the acquisitions so rapidly accumulating of objects or species 'new 

 to science,' but devote themselves also, and more especially, to the investigation of 

 their developmental phenomena. 



It has therefore seemed to me that it would not be inappropriate, as being 

 germane to the present phase of research, to submit to the Section a few words on 

 the genesis of this new national edifice, generously provided by tlie State for the 

 promotion of our sciences of natural history. 



On the demise, in 1856, of Sir Henry Ellis, K.T., then Principal Librarian of 

 the British Museum, the Government, made aware of the growth of the depart- 

 ments of natural history, more especially of geology and paleontology, since the 

 foundation of the Museum in 17o.'>, when the collections of printed books and 

 manuscripts predominated, determined that, together with a principal librarian, 

 there should be associated a new ofUcial having special charge of the collections of 

 natural history, but under similar subordinate relations to the Trustees. To this 

 official was assigned the title of ' Superintendent of the Departments of Natural 

 History,' and I had the honour to be selected for this olBce.* 



' The official designation assigned by the Trustees to the building and its contents, 

 * The date of my appointment is May 26, 185G. 



