BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY).; 63 



special presses with the letters of naturalists to Owen, largely 

 referring to specimens in the collections (presented in 1908) that 

 are now bound in twenty-seven volumes. The whole constitute, as 

 it were, a memorial to the distinguished naturalist who was the 

 prime and successful advocate for the separate establishment of the 

 Natural History Museum. 



The printing of the Catalogue was completed with the issue of 

 the fifth volume " SO — Z " in June. Letter " A " of the Supplement, 

 which is estimated to contain upwards of 25,700 entries, has been 

 prepared for press. ^ 



Index Generum et Specierum Animalium. 



During the year considerable progress has been made with this 

 Index, under Mr. C. Davies Sherborn's charge, and some 30,000 

 slips have been compiled and incorporated. 



The manuscript has been consulted to a more than usual extent 

 during the past year by the Staff and Students, whilst many 

 enquiries have been replied to by Mr. Sherborn in correspondence. 



The chief rarities secured for the Library by Mr. Sherborn 

 were : — The first and second issues of Swainson's " Exotic Oon- 

 chology," 1821 — 22, and 1834 — 35 ; and a curiosity in the shape 

 of a previously unknown little work, " The Naturalists' Pocket Book 

 for 1813," by George Shaw of the British Museum. 



The issues of Swainson formed the subject of a paper by C. D. 

 Sherborn and A. Reynell in the Proceedings of the Malacological 

 Society of London (Vol. xi, 1915, pp. 276—282). 



Index Museum. 



All the dissections exhibited in the Hall that are mounted in 

 preservative fluid have been inspected during the year, and several 

 have been resealed and many refilled. 



Further progress has been made in the introductory series of 

 animals, plants and rocks, which, when completed, will be exhibited 

 in four table-cases in the middle of the Hall ; twenty-four new 

 specimens have been prepared during the year for the fourth case 

 (Vertebrate Animals), and the series of minerals and rocks has been 

 roughly planned out. 



The " Dental Exhibition," consisting of skulls, jaws and teeth 

 showing interesting features of dentition, which had been on view in 

 the Hall since July, 1914, was dispersed in July, 1915. One of 

 the two table-cases thus liberated was employed for exhibiting once 

 more, with some additions, the results of experiments conducted by 

 Lieut.-Col. W. W. 0. Beveridge and Mr. J. Hartley Durrant with 

 a view to combating the ravages of certain beetles and moths that 



