british museum (natural history). 101 



British Museum (Natural History). 



STATEMENT of Progress made in the Arrangement and 

 Description of the Collections, and Account of Objects 

 added to them, in the Year 1911. 



General Progress. 



Visitors. 



The total number of visits made by the public to the 

 Natural History Museum during 1911 was 435,684, as compared 

 with 515,562 in 1910. The falling off in numbers (nearly 80,000) 

 is no doubt partly to be accounted for by the exceptionally 

 fine weather experienced during the summer. A comparison 

 of the figures during the months of July, August, and September 

 with those of the same months of the previous year shows that 

 nearly 40,000, or one-half of the decrease, occurred in those 

 three months, when the weather was exceptionally fine. The 

 number of visits on week days was 380,991, and on Sunday 

 afternoons 54,693. 



The average daily attendance for all open days was 1,207 ; 

 for week days only, 1,221 ; and for Sunday afternoons, 1,032, 



The Museum was closed on 22 and 23 June, the days 

 proclaimed as Public Holidays on the occasion of the Royal 

 Coronation and the Royal Progress. 



Siuiney Lectures. 



Dr. T. J. Jehu gave his third course of Swiney Lectures" 

 during November, the subject being " The Natural History of 

 Rocks." 



The lectures, twelve in number, were delivered, as usual, in 

 the theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, by permission 

 of the Board of Education, and the total attendance for the 

 course was 2,341 persons, or an average of 195 per lecture (as 

 compared with 193 in 1910). 



The Trustees have approved as the subject of Dr. Jehu's 

 next course of lectures : " The Record of Life as revealed in the 

 Rocks " ; and they have agreed to his proposal to deliver them 

 on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in December and 

 January, with a fortnight's interval for the Christmas holiday, 

 instead of in November. 



Exhibition of the Natural History of the Bible. 

 In connection with the celebration of the Tercentenary of 

 the first publication of the Authorized Version of the Bible, a 

 special exhibition illustrating the natural history of the Bible 

 has been arranged in the Central Hall of the Museum, and a 

 Guide-book to the Exhibition has been published. 



