THE SOUTH KENSINGTON SITE, 203 



by blood-sucking Insects in the dissemination of Sleeping Sick- 

 ness, Malaria, Plague, Yellow Fever, and other diseases which 

 affect Man and Domestic animals, and to the immense practical 

 importance of an accurate knowledge of the Insect and other 

 pests which attack cultivated crops. In some of the studies 

 connected with these Insects the Museum has taken an im- 

 portant share. In order that it may continue to do so it is 

 essential that room should be left for expansion of the collection 

 of Insects ; and large additions to the Insect-Eoom are urgently 

 required even now. 



Throughout the Museum the need of additional accommoda- 

 tion is already acutely felt. The public Galleries are over- 

 crowded, the space available for the study-collections which are 

 indispensable for comparison when the opinion of the Museum 

 is asked on any question is quite inadequate, and in some parts 

 of the Institution it is already impossible to find proper accom- 

 modation for the members of the permanent staff and for 

 students who come to consult the collections. It is impossible 

 to foresee the future needs of Palaeontology, but the Museum 

 would even now have great difficulty in finding room for the 

 reception of any considerable collection of the more gigantic 

 species, such as some of the extinct Reptiles, new forms of which 

 are being discovered by expeditions at present in the field. 



We think that the full effect of the proposal to remove the 

 Spirit-Building from its present position can hardly have been 

 apparent to some of those who signed Sir Henry Roscoe's 

 Memorial. We pass over the waste of public money which is 

 involved in the destruction of a building which, with its fittings, 

 has cost i^30,000. The alienation of the strip of land, to the 

 North of the main Museum, which it is proposed to hand over 

 to the Science Museum, would leave an area to the North of the 

 former building which would be so small as hardly to provide . 

 sufficient accommodation for any extension of the numerous 

 outbuildings which are essential for the work of the Museum. 

 But the most fatal objection to the present proposal is that, by 

 placing the Spirit-Building anywhere between the main Museum 

 and the public roads, space would be occupied which is of vital 

 importance to reserve for the future growth of the main Museum 

 itself. 



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