16 BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) 



GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL 



HISTORY). 



The total number of visitors to the British Museum (Natural History) 

 during 1936 was 638,141, as compared with 666,147 in 1935. Thus, 

 although attendances were slightly lower than last year, they still exceeded 

 all other previous records. The visitors on Sunday afternoons numbered 

 130,083, showing an increase of 9,741 on the figure for 1935. The total 

 number of visitors attending the tours of the Official Guide-Lecturers 

 during 1936 was 23,347, as against 24,890 in 1935. 



The weekly biology broadcasts for school children, received in the 

 Board Room and followed by short tours in the galleries to illustrate the 

 lectures, were attended during the school year 1935-36 by 709 children, 

 and further consequential tours were arranged for 760 children. 



The transference of the bird collections (which occupy nearly 5,000 

 drawers) to the three lower floors of the New Western Block was com- 

 pleted by the beginning of July. In order to facilitate their removal, an 

 opening was made in the wall of the old Bird Room and a temporary 

 bridge was constructed linking the two buildings. A similar method was 

 employed in connexion with the subsequent removal of the entomological 

 collections from the Empire Marketing Board section of the New Spirit 

 Building to the three upper floors of the New Western Block ; and the work 

 of instaUing mezzanine floors in the section of the New Spirit Building 

 thus vacated began in October. 



Mr. M. A. C. Hinton, F.R.S., was appointed to the Keepership of the 

 Department of Zoology, on the retirement of Dr. W. T. Caiman, C.B., 

 F.R.S. Mr. G. C. Robson, Deputy Keeper, Zoology, retired owing to 

 ill-health. Mr. N. B. Kinnear and Dr. H. A. Baylis were appointed 

 Deputy Keepers in the same Department. 



Exhibition Oalleries. 



A magnificent series of Elephant tusks deposited on permanent loan 

 by H.M.King Edward VIII was placed on exhibition in the East Corridor. 

 Considerable progress was made in the arrangement of exhibits in the 

 Whale Hall, and a model of a Whale Shark, 34 feet long, was suspended in 

 the Fish Gallery. A special exhibit iUustrating the biology of water 

 supply arranged by Dr. Anna B. Hastings, with assistance from the 

 staff of the Water Examination Department of the MetropoHtan Water 

 Board, was placed in the Central Hall. The collection of moUuscan 

 shells was removed from the Shell Gallery and was rearranged for study 

 purposes. 



In the Department of Entomology only a few minor changes were 

 made in the exhibited series during the year. 



In the Department of Geology a new stereorama of Carboniferous 

 fishes was completed and added to the series in the Fossil Fish GaUery,from 

 which the case containing the Wilham Smith Collection of Fossils was 

 removed to a position near the entrance to the Fossil Mammal Gallery. 

 A selected series only is now exhibited from this collection, together with 

 some of Smith's maps and drawings. 



The installation of the large Cranbourne meteoric iron in a nitrogen- 

 filled case in the Mineral Gallery was completed. Top fighting and an 

 illuminated head label were provided together with a descriptive label and 

 map of the locality of the fall. A temporary exhibit of fused glass, etc., 

 resulting from the fire at the Crystal Palace was arranged and placed on 



