BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). 19 



X. British Museum (Natural History). 



SUMMARY o£ General Progress made at the Natural History 

 Museum in the year 1917. 



On account o£ the extreme shortage o£ paper the Annual Return 

 for 1917 has been confined to the Director's Summary, on the 

 understanding that the full reports by the Keepers o£ the several 

 Departments will be printed a£ter the close o£ the war £or purposes 

 o£ record. 



The total number o£ visits made by the public to the Natural 

 History Museum during 1917 was 423,128, as compared with 

 402,673 in 1916. The attendance on Sunday afternoons was 46,468, 

 as against 43,414 in the previous year. The average daily attend- 

 ance for all open days was 1,166 ; for week-days 1,211 ; and for 

 Sundav afternoons, 894. 



Dr". J. S. Flett, F.R.S., gave, at the Royal Society of Arts in 

 November and December, the Swiney course of twelve lectures, 

 his subject being " The Mineral Resources of the British Empire," 

 which were attended, on an average, by 80 persons a lecture. 

 The lectures attracted considerable attention, and a copy of the 

 full abstract has been supplied to the Ministry of Munitions of 

 War, Department of Development of Mineral Resources, for 

 purposes of reference. 



The Trustees have readily given their assent to a request of 

 the Committee formed to promote a National Memorial to the 

 late Captain F. C. Selous, D.S.O., who was killed in action in 

 East Africa, on January 4th, 1917, to place in the Natural History 

 Museum a bronze bust of the ^reat hunter and naturalist, to whom 

 the Museum is indebted for so many of its finest exhibited specimens 

 of big game. The Trustees desire to place on record here their sense 

 of the valuable services rendered by Captain Selous to the Museum. 



At the close of 1917, 60 members of the staff of the Natural 

 History Museum were serving with the Military Forces, while seven 

 were doing war work in other Government Departments to which 

 they were lent for the purpose. 



Since the outbreak of war seven members of the staff have been 

 killed, fourteen have been wounded, and seven have been invalided 

 out of the army ; ten have been granted commissions, of whom two 

 have received the Military Cross, and one has been mentioned in 

 despatches. 



As will be seen, the staff has been considerably depleted by 

 military duty and the calls of the War Departments for the services 

 of scientific experts. Nevertheless the Museum has been able to 

 render important help in various ways in matters directly relating 

 to the War. 



