ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The proportion of the Crustacea, Arachnida, and Insecta, which is exhibited, and the 

 much larger proportion which is stored in the basement rooms, are in a good state of pre- 

 servation and arrangement. 



The loss of colour by long exposure in the exhibited specimens, easily met in most in- 

 stances bv periodical replacements, is a contingency greatly overbalanced in favour of the 

 public by the facility of comparison afforded to the diffident student, and by tlie pleasure 

 and instruction imparted by easily seen and well-arranged series to the majority of visitors. 



In most classes of Animals a proportion of the species, and in a few classes the whole, 

 require to be preserved in spirits. Of the latter, the Annelidas and Entozoa are examples ; 

 and these classes en sequently remain at present unexhibited. The specimens are in good 

 condition, and ready for systematic display whenever the requisite space may be acquired : 

 in the number and variety of the species they are now calculated to convey a satisfactory 

 and instructive idea of their respective classes. A catalogue of the Entozoa was printed by 

 order of the Trustees in 1853. 



Of the class Polyzoa, the majority of the specimens described in the printed Catalogue 

 of 1852, together with the subsequent numerous additions, are preserved in spirits, and 

 stored ; all these are. in good condition for future display and public use. The hard parts 

 of certain of the species of this class, resenibiino; Corals, are exhibited. The transitional cha- 

 racter of the Polyzoa between MoUusca and Radiata makes the class one of peculiar interest. 



Of the true radiated animals, the Shells of the Echinoderms (Urchins and Starfishes), and 

 the Corals, with other calcareous parts of the Zoophytes, are exhibited as far as the extent 

 of space for that purpose admits. 



The specimens of Radiata having the soft or animal part, the order Holotliuriada, and 

 the class Acalepha, are preserved in spirits and stored. The entire collection of Radiata is 

 in a good state of preservation. 



The number of additions to the Zoological Department during the past year is •25,2*22. 



Geology. — The specimens oC Geology and Pateonfology are in a good state of preserva- 

 tion. A larger proportion of this Department is exhibited than of Zoology. The exhibited 

 specimens are systematically arranged and labelled. With regard to certain groups of 

 Fossils, the same plan and scale of arrangement are adopted as in the classes of Birds and 

 Shells in the Zoological Department, and vviih the same advantage and satisfaction to the 

 public. But this application of the Geological Collection is at pi-esent restricted to the 

 Brachiopoda of the Tertiary and Cretaceous formatioiis, to the Echinoids of tlie class 

 Echinodermata, and to the Ammonites and some cognate families of chambered Shells, 

 save where the specimens are too large for the cabinets. Of other groups of Invertebrate 

 Fossils, selections have been made according to the extent of exhibition space at command. 

 The specimens of Fossil Fishes, most of those of the class Reptilia, and a large proportion 

 of the Mammalian Fossils, are exhibited in systematic arrangement. But these classes are 

 but partially illustrated, in proportioiT to the known extinct forms, by the specimens already 

 acquired. 



The arranged series of Crinoidea, the larger examples of the Fossil Cephalopoda, and 

 some other specimens, are stored in the Cabinets of the Gallery temporarily fiited up for 

 the ofhces of the Keeper of lYlineralogy and the Assistants in the Department of Geolocjy. 

 The Crinoids are now concealed by the Cabinets of the Allan-Greg Collection of Minerals, 

 for the temporary location of which no other space is available in the Department, and only 

 special visitors have access to the proportion of the Geological Collection available for 

 examination, and preserved in this gallery of temporary offices. Numerous instructive 

 Fossils continue to be stored, for want of exhibition space, in drawers and boxes. 



The additions made to the Department of Geology during the past year, including the 

 '* Sowerby Collection," of Fossil Conchology, and the selections from the " John Brown" 

 Museum, amount to upwards of 10,000 specimens, and there is no prospect of a decreasing 

 ratio of increment in future years. The Collection, which includes the original specimens 

 first described and figured in James Sowerby's "Mineral Conchology of Great Britain," 

 bears to that important branch of Palaeontology the same relation which the Cuvierian 

 Collection of Mammalian Fossils in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, holds with reference to 

 that higher grade of life, and to the pi'inciples of the reconstruction of extinct species. Both 

 are classical series of specimens of enduring and fundamental importance to the progress 

 of Geological Science. 



Mineralogy. — The extensive and of late rapidly augmented series of Mineral specimens 

 are in a good condition : a very large proportion is displayed, but extensive modifications 

 and improvements in their systematic arrangement are in progress. The chief aim in a 

 public Museum, viz., to sliow the best representatives of the species and chief varieties it 

 may possess, has always governed the exhibition and disposition of the specimens in this 

 beautiful class of natural objects. 



Those which are preserved in drawers are so stored, save in the case of unequivocal and 

 inferior duplicates, only until the requisite exhibition space may be acquired. 



The additions raade to the series of Mineralogy, during the past year, are upwards of 

 10,000 in number, of which 9,000 were acquired by a single purchase, viz., that of the liitihly 

 reputed " Allan-Greg " Collection. Perhaps the niost interesting ot the additions to the 

 Mineralogy, from other sources, are the Meteorites presented by Her Majesty's Secretary of 

 State for India in Council. Of these, a iiiass weighing 25 lbs. is one of the veiy few 

 coHfcted examples of mineral bodies from extra-tellurial space which have been seen to fall. 



The occurrence took place in the year 1815, about 80 miles from Ludhiana, in the East 

 220. C Indies. 



