100 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



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 1912. 



General Progress. 



Visitors. 

 The total number of visits made by the public to the 

 Natural History Museum during 1912 was 455,613, an increase 

 of nearly 20,000, as compared with 435,684 in 1911. The 

 number of visits on week days was 404,848, and on Sunday 

 afternoons 50,765. In 1911 the Sunday afternoon visitors 

 numbered 54,693. 



The average daily attendance for all open days was 1,276 ; 

 for week days only, 1,323 ; and for Sunday afternoons, 995. 



Stuiney Lectures. 



Dr. Jehu gave his fourth course of Swiney Lectures on 

 three afternoons a week during the months of December and 

 January, with an interval for the Christmas holiday. His 

 subject on this occasion was " The E.ecord of Life as revealed in 

 the Rocks," and the lectures, 12 in number, were delivered, as 

 usual, in the theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, by 

 permission of the Board of Education. The attendance for the 

 course totalled 1,931, or an average of 161 persons per lecture. 



Dr. Jehu's appointment has been extended for another year, 

 and he proposes to give a course of lectures in December next 

 on "The Natural History of Minerals and Ores." 



Official Guide. 

 An Official Guide (Mr. J. H. Leonard, B.Sc.) has been 

 appointed to take parties of visitors round the collections, 

 daily, except Sundays, free of charge. The experiment has 

 proved a great success, and the services of the Guide are so 

 much in request that it is evident that the public greatly 

 appreciate this new departure. 



Depart'inent of Entomology. 

 Owing to the rapid growth of the entomological collections, 

 and the importance, now widely recognised, of the study of 

 insects in relation to the spread of disease in man and in 

 animals, the Trustees considered that the time had arrived 

 when the section of entomology should be constituted a 

 distinct Department with a Keeper at its head. 



