MUSEUM REPORT. CXXV1l 
the nature of the objects for which it is designed. A different plan 
should be framed for each separate collection. 
It is stated in the Report of the Museum for 1834 that Mr. Lons- 
dale had introduced a regular systematic mode of labelling. In 1840 
Mr. Woodward was employed to affix labels with general and speci- 
fic names, localities, references to books and names of donors. How 
far this was a continuation of Mr. Lonsdale’s system, or a deviation 
from it, is not mentioned ; it would appear desirable however at this 
time that some system of labelling should be now approved by the 
Council, and that once determined upon, it should be steadily and 
strictly adhered to throughout the collections. 
Without going into further detail, it may, perhaps, be proper to 
observe, that there is not at present in the Museum a single specimen 
of that enigmatical formation the Speeton clay. 
The series of Echinodermata is also said to be very defective. 
Mr. Sowerby is of opinion, that if from the first exchanges of spe- 
cimens had been allowed, the only reservation being that individual 
species described or figured should not be parted with, the Museum 
would have been much richer in many departments than it now is, 
and not poorer in any. 
Your Committee recommend that the further arrangement of the 
British Collection should for the present be suspended, and the spe- 
cimens newly presented should be prepared for admission into the 
cabinets on the earliest convenient opportunity after their arrival. 
They are disposed to think that, as a general rule, their actual admis- 
sion should not take place till after the recess. They recommend 
further that the arrangement of all the different collections, as far as 
it involves only diligence, regularity and strict attention to routine, 
should be lodged im the hands of one person only: that the said 
person should have written instructions as to the mode of executing 
his commission: that each collection intended to be kept up should 
be distinctly recognised by the Council, and receive a distinctive name 
and a prescribed locality: that the name of each collection should be 
imscribed in conspicuous characters on or near the room or cabinet in 
which it is contained: and lastly, that no species shall m future be 
admitted into the collection, the features of which are too indistinct 
or incomplete for discrimination. 
With a view to prevent im future the indefinite accumulation of 
duplicates and unexamined specimens in the crypts, a monthly return 
should be given im to the Council of all newly-arrived specimens, and 
of the manner in which they have been disposed of respectively. 
Your Committee recommend that, on an interleaved copy of Mor- 
ris’s Catalogue of British Fossils be inserted in a column appropriated 
to that purpose, im pencil, the distinctive number of the prism and 
the letter of*the drawer in which each several specimen is contained : 
that a further catalogue be drawn out after the pattern herewith sent, 
with such modification only as the Council. may direct, and that the 
said pattern be in future strictly adhered to: that when any specimen 
is entered in the Catalogue, a mark be made on its label, to show that 
it has been so entered. 
