Notices of Memoirs — Museums Association. 377 



British Museum of Natural History there was the organization of 

 the staff, which, like the collections, was divided into departments ; 

 thirdly, there was the cost of making such alterations, which was 

 very great ; and fourthly, there was the matter of convenience. 



" Public opinion,'" said Dr. Woodward, " is, I find, very largely in 

 favour of keeping the Geological and Zoological Collections distinct 

 from one another, principally because the people who use the 

 ■collections are still interested in them according to the special 

 line of research in which they ai'e engaged, and the books wliich 

 they have been reading. They come expressly to see the Birds, 

 or the Beetles, or Butterflies, the African Antelopes, or Recent 

 Shells, and don't want to see the fossil ones. Or, again, they are' 

 interested in Ammonites, or in Trilobites, or Fossil Fishes, and wish 

 to see what we have exhibited of one or other of these. For, after 

 all, the human intellect is restricted, and we cannot, many at least 

 of us, hope to attain to the wisdom of Solomon, who discoursed of 

 trees from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out 

 of the wall, and spake also of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping; 

 things, and of fishes. The necessities arising out of the greatnesS) 

 of the subject has made most of us specialists, and we are, as a rule,, 

 content to know one group fairly well. As a consequence, we, 

 rarely, nowadays, meet with the all-round Naturalist who has a wide 

 knowledge of most branches of Zoology and of Botany. Many, 

 of the members of this Museums Association have, however, com- 

 pulsorily, to keep up such an all-round acquaintance with Natural 

 History, and not unfrequently to undertake the intelligent arrange- 

 ment of an Art-Gallery and perhaps a Gallery of Antiquities as well. 

 They have, in fact, to be more learned than the Professors of 

 Natural History in the Queen's Universities, who less than 50 years 

 ago were required to lecture on Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and 

 Zoology, in all their varied branches ! and to give demonstrations 

 also to their classes in the field. 



" The organization of a Museum into Departments, each under its 

 own special head, is almost fatal to any scheme of amalgamation, 

 and although under the late Sir William Flower, and the present 

 Director, Professor Kay Lankester, much has been done towards 

 breaking down the hard lines of demarcation, still the Departments 

 of Palaeontology and Zoology remain as such to the present day. 



" The late Director commenced in 1896 to remodel the Zoological 

 Department, working specially at the Mammalia, up to the time of 

 his retirement in September, 1898, and with the active co-operation 

 of Mr. Richard Lydekker, F.R.S. (who has continued the task down 

 to the present time). Still the great work remains unfinished. 



" Sir William Flower's last efforts were devoted to complete 

 the exhibition of Cetacea in the new whale-room, which contains 

 models, skins, and skeletons of thirty-eight of these huge marine 

 mammals. The present Director has just added all the fossil forms, 

 so that in this one group the biologist is able to see the living and 

 extinct members of the Cetacea placed side by side, and can realize 

 how far such a plan is a success. 



