16 BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 



Among the most interesting economic inquiries received during the 

 year were some from the Ministry of Health and from the Editor of the 

 Pharmaceutical Journal that established the occurrence in the City of 

 London of Liponyssus bacoti, a mite parasitic on rats, previously 

 recorded from Egypt, China, Japan and the United States. Advice 

 was also given in connexion with the identification of molluscan vectors 

 of Schistosoma in Accra ; snails infesting coffee plants ; the blocking of 

 water-supplies by Polyzoa ; and parasitic worms. 



In the Department of Entomology the economic collections, except 

 those portions relating to household pests, were disbanded, the 

 information which they were intended to illustrate having previously 

 been recorded in the form of a MS. catalogue. Inquiries concerning 

 household pests and insects of economic importance were not numerous, 

 and the Assistant Keepers concerned were, therefore, able to devote 

 far more time to systematic work than in recent years. Mr. A. W. 

 McKenny Hughes was appointed to serve on the Departmental 

 Committee on Bed-bugs set up by the Ministry of Health in connexion 

 with the Government's slum clearance proposals. 



Libraries. 



In the General Library a further transference of books to the basement 

 has had to be made, and only the volumes of periodicals of the last 

 twenty-five years are now housed in the main corridor. 



During the year 1,558 separate works, 9,752 parts of periodicals, and 

 304 maps were added to the General and Departmental libraries. 

 In addition, a number of original drawings, manuscripts and photo- 

 graphs were received. All these were stamped, press-marked, and 

 catalogued. 



Among the gifts received were : — 



From the Carnegie Institution of Washington : twenty- seven volumes 

 of their scientific publications. 



From Senor C. Stuardo : several of the rare early volumes of the 

 Re vista Chilena de Historia Natural. 



From the Librarian of the Queen's University, Belfast : a number of 

 miscellaneous parts of periodicals, all of which helped to fill up gaps in 

 the Museum collection, and several reports and pamphlets relating to 

 the Belfast Natural History Society. 



From the Friends of the National Libraries (with Dr. P. Gosse) : 

 four original manuscripts by P. H. Gosse (1810-1888). 



From Mr. E. Heron-Allen, F.R.S. : eleven volumes on precious 

 stones, including an early work by Marbodus (1036-1123), printed in 

 1531. 



From the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew : an inter- 

 leaved and annotated copy of W. J. Hooker's British Flora, and 

 sixty-eight sheets of drawings, which had belonged to the Rev. G. E. 

 Smith, whose herbarium was already in the Museum. 



The late Mr. Basil H. Soulsby bequeathed to the Museum Library 

 all Linnean printed matter and manuscripts which the Librarian might 

 select. Among the volumes thus acquired were a copy of Sir William 

 Osier's Bibliotheca Osleriana and Systeme naturale du regne animale 

 . . . suivant la methode Klein, Paris, 1754, a rare v/ork not mentioned 

 in Hulth's " Bibliographia Linnaeana," 1907, 



