BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). 87 



British Museum (Natural History), 



STATEMENT of Progress made in the Arrangeme[nt and 

 Description of the Collections, and Account of Objects 

 added to them, in the year 1920. 



General Progreiss. 



Visitors, ^c. 



The total number of visitors to the Natural History Museum 

 during 1920 was 527,701, as compared with 455,736 in 1919. 

 This is the largest total since 1909, when the number was 535,116. 

 The attendance on Sunday afternoons was 65,431, as against 

 56,673 in the previous year. The average dally attendance for 

 all open days was 1,450; for week-days, 1,482; and for Sunday 

 afternoons, 1,258. The number of persons who attended the 

 demonstrations of the official Guide during the year was 14,306. 



The members of the International Council for the Exploration 

 of the Seas, which met in London in March, paid an official 

 visit to the Natural History Museum. 



The Egg-collection in the Bird-room, which was closed during 

 the War, was re-opened to students under the usual conditions. 



The Staff. 



Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S., attended the Annual Conference 

 of the Museums Association held at Winchester in July as dele- 

 gate from the Natural History Museum, and Mr. M. A. C. 

 Hinton the Congress of the. Royal Sanitary Institute held at 

 Birmingham during the same month. Sir Sidney Harmer was 

 appointed to represent the Museum on the Executive Committee 

 of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the 

 Empire, and Mr. Percy R. Lowe on a Home Office Advisory 

 Committee in coimection with the administration of the Wild 

 Birds Protection Acts. Permission was given to Mr. J. Rams- 

 bottom to serve on a Committee appointed by the Army Council 

 to advise as to processes to improve the durability of Tentage; 

 to Mr. A. S. Hirst to accept the post of Honorary Acarologist 

 to the London School of Tropical Medicine; and to Dr. L. J. 

 Spencer and Mr. W. Campbell Smith to act as Examiners in 

 Mineralogy for the. Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge in 1921 . 



Swiney Lectures. 



Dr. J. D. Falconer, Swiney Lecturer for 1920, gave a course 

 of lectures in the Lecture Theatre of the Imperial College of 

 Science on ''The Modelling of the Earth's Crust." The total 

 attendance for the course was 2,556, or, on an average, 213 

 persons per lecture. 



