IG 



ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VII. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The grand total number of visits to the Museum in the 

 year 1901 was 718,614. This is an increase of more than 

 29,000 on the total of the year 1900, which was 689,249 ; 

 and that total, again, was an increase of more than 25,000 on 

 that of the previous year. This gratifying augmentation 

 of upwards of 54,000 visits during the past two years has 

 carried the total of last year above the average of the years 

 1880-1883, when the removal of the Natural History Collec- 

 tions to Cromwell Road was accomplished and entailed 

 a serious diminution of the numbers, the total for 1884 being 

 only 468,873. It is also satisfactory that the number of 

 visits on Sunday afternoons has steadily increased year by 

 year, the total for 1901 being 48,895, as against 43,892 in 

 1900. 



The number of visits of students to the Reading Room 

 has risen to 200,035, as against 198,566 in 1900 ; a daily 

 average of 664. 



The average number of persons in the room, counted at 

 the later hours of the afternoon, were : — 



4 P.M. 

 354 



5 P.M. 



276 



6 P.M. 



176 



6.30 P.M. 



7 P.M. 

 103 



7.30 P.M. 



77 



These figures have become almost normal, the yearly 

 fluctuations being very slight. 



In the several Departments other than the Reading Room 

 there has been a further increase in the number of visits of 

 students, the total last year being 57,943, as against 56,043 

 in 1900. The Departments of Prints and Drawings and of 

 Coins and Medals have been more frequented ; but there has 

 been a decline in the number of students drawing in the 

 Sculpture Galleries. 



Improved electric alarm circuits have been installed both 

 within and without the building. 



The condition of the wooden floors in the public galleries 

 has called for serious attention, the former system of 

 scouring with water and cleansing fluids having caused the 

 surfaces to decay very considerably. Several of the floors 

 have now been refaced and are treated with polish, washing 

 with water being thus superseded. This system will be 

 extended to the wooden flooring throughout the building. 



