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British Museum Collections. 



Dr. Gray has had the kindness to send rae the following note of the 

 increase of the Museum Collection : — 



"The Museum has added 11,000 specimens of insects during the 

 last year." 



The mention of the British Museum naturally recalls to mind the 

 recent resolution of the Trustees to remove the Natural- History Col- 

 lections to some other locality. If the removal be made to some cen- 

 tral place, then naturalists may rejoice in the hope of seeing the vast 

 acquisitions continually made by the Museum, and now useless for 

 want of space, rendered available for use by scientific men. But if, 

 notwithstanding the protest against the separation from the other col- 

 lections of the Museum, signed by nearly every naturalist of note, 

 which was sent to the Trustees, they consent to the removal of the 

 Natural-History Collections to a distant part of the metropolis, it is 

 quite certain they will have done more than by any other means could 

 be accomplished to retard the progress of the science of Natural His- 

 tory in England. At present it is difficult enough for entomologists 

 occasionally to steal an hour or two fi'om their other avocations 

 to study the collections in the Museum, but if the insects be removed 

 to one extremity of the town, they will become, by their inacces- 

 sibility, useless to the very class of persons that most of all could pro- 

 fit by them. 



The Oxford University Museum. 



The foundation, by the Rev. F. W. Hope, of the Chair of Zoology 

 at Oxford, with especial reference to the Articulata, and the appoint- 

 ment of Mr. Westwood as Professor, are events on which ento- 

 mologists generally may be congratulated, as they can scarcely fail to 

 have a most beneficial effect on scientific Entomology. But in order 

 to realize the full benefits of which such an institution is capable, I 

 trust that the Professor will have so much assistance allowed him, in 

 attending to the Museum, as to leave him free to devote the necessary 

 time to lectures and the other higher duties of his ofiSce. 



Professor Westwood has had the goodness to send me the following 

 particulars respecting the Museum : — 



" During the past summer the Hope Collections of Articulata have 

 been removed from the Taylor Institute to the head University 

 Museum, where a noble room has been fitted for their reception. 

 Fresh cabinets, made by Standish, have been received, it being 

 intended by degrees to place the collection in uniform cases. Besides 



