594 REPORT— 1880. 



seven other galleries of various widtbs, and, therefore adapted for various exhibi- 

 .tions, join at right angles the long gallery of the ground floor. The first and 

 second storeys are occupied by galleries similar to the main gallerj- of the ground 

 floor. 



The collections are distributed in this building thus : — The v?estern vring is 

 occupied by Zoology, the eastern by the three other departments, viz. the gromid- 

 floor by Geology, the first-floor gallery by Mineralogy, and the second-floor gallery 

 by Botany. The central portion is, as mentioned above, divided into the room for 

 British Zoology and into the * Index Museiun,' that is, ' an apartment devoted to 

 specimens selected to show the type-characters of the principal groups of organized 

 beings.' The basement consists of a number of spacious, well-lit rooms, well 

 adapted for carrying on the different kinds of work in connection with such large 

 collections. 



There is no doubt that the building fulfils the principal condition for which it 

 was erected, viz., space for the collections. The Zoological collections gain more 

 thau twice as much space as they had in the old building, the Geological and 

 Mineralogical about thrice, and the Botanical more than four times. This increase 

 of space w^ill enable the keeper of the last-named department to bring the collec- 

 tions correlated with each other into close proximity, and to prepare a much greater 

 iiumber of objects for exhibition than was possible hitherto. The Mineralogical 

 Department, already so admirably arranged in the old building, has now been sup- 

 plied with the space requisite for a collection of rocks, with a laboratory and gonio- 

 metrical room. Geologj^ is now in a position to exhibit a great part of the 

 Invertebrata, which hitherto had to be deposited in private studies, besides devoting 

 one or two of the new galleries to a stratigraphical series. On the Zoological side 

 we have been great gainers (not with regard to the proportion of space), but inas- 

 much as we were more impeded by the crowded state of our collections, than any 

 of the other departments : we are enabled to avoid the exhibition of heterogeneous 

 objects in the same room or gallery ; mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusks, 

 insects, echinoderms, corals, and sponges have each a smaller or larger gallery to 

 themselves. With the exception of the specimens preserved in spirits, the studj'- 

 series can be located in contiguity with, or at least, close vicinity to, the exhibition- 

 series. There is ample and convenient accommodation for students; besides a 

 spacious room, centrally situated, and arranged for the exclusive use of students, 

 this class of visitors can be accommodated at four other diflerent localities imme- 

 diately adjoining the several branches of the collection. 



I believe that some of the members of the British Association will feel some- 

 what disappointed that the Zoological and Botanical collections on the one hand, and 

 the Palseontological on the other, continue to be kept distinct. Who wall, who 

 can, doubt that the two branches of Biological science would be immensely 

 benefited by being studied in their natural mutual relations ? and that Palseon- 

 tolog}'- more especially would have made surer progress if its stud}^ had been con- 

 ducted with more dii'ect application to the series of living forms ? But to study 

 the series of extinct and living forms in their natural connection is one thing, and 

 to incorporate in a museum the collection of fossil with that of recent forms, 

 is another. The latter proposal, so excellent in theory, would ofler in its prac- 

 tical execution so many and insuperable difficulties that we may well hesitate 

 before we recommend the experiment to he tried in so large a collection as the 

 British Museum. I have mentioned above that in a small collection such an 

 arrangement may be feasible to a certain degree ; but in a large collection you can- 

 not place skins, bones, spirit-preparations, and stones in the same room, or, perhaps, 

 in the same case, exposing them to the same conditions of light and temperature, 

 without injuring either the one or the other. IZach. liind of those objects requires for 

 its preservation special considerations and special mani])ulations ; and by represent- 

 ing them in each of the several departments, you would have to double your staff of 

 skilled manipulators with their apparatus, which means multiplying your expenses. 

 Departmental administration generally, and especially the system of acquisition 

 by purchase or exchange, would become extremely complicated, and could not be 

 carried on without a considerably greater expenditure in time and monej'. Thus, 



