100 



GEITERAL AEKANGEMENT. 



Zoological 

 Department. 



Geological 

 Department. 



Introductory 

 Colleotioii. 



III. In the same way the animal kingdom belongs to the 

 department of Zoology, to which is assigned the whole of the 

 western wing of the building. 



It will thus be seen that a department of the Museum 

 corresponds with each of the great divisions of natural objects ; 

 there is, however, a fourth department, which owes its separate 

 existence to a time when the terms Zoology and Botany were 

 limited to the study of the existing forms of animal and plant 

 life, and the extinct or fossil forms were associated with 

 minerals, rather than with their living representatives. This 

 arrangement prevaiLed in the British Museum untU the year 

 1857. The fossils were then severed from this incongruous 

 connection, and placed in a separate department for which 

 the name of "Geology" was reserved.* The result is that 

 there are now two distinct zoological and botanical collections 

 in the building, one containing the remains of all the animals 

 and plants which lived through successive ages of the world's 

 history from the earliest dawn of life down to close upon the 

 present time, and the other including only those living at the 

 particular period in which we dwell. Notwithstanding the 

 objections which may be urged against this separation, it prevails 

 largely in museums, and (owing to certain conveniences, as 

 well as to the difficulty and expense of rearranging extensive 

 collections and reorganising the staff in charge of them) will 

 probably be retained for some time to come. It should, however, 

 be mentioned that a few specimens illustrating some of the more 

 important extinct forms have been intercalated among the recent 

 Mammals and Eeptiles ; while, conversely, skeletons and other 

 specimens of recent animals have been introduced among the 

 fossil Vertebrates in the Geological Department. Again, the 

 more important remains of extinct Cetaceans are now shown 

 in the Whale Eoom, as are many of the specimens of Elephants, 

 as well as all the Sea-Cows, in the Geological Department. 



Besides the four above-mentioned departments, into which 

 the collection is divided for the purposes of custody and 



* Paleontology, or the study of fossil animals, would have been a more 

 appropriate designation, as Geology, the science which investigates the 

 history of the earth, and the changes which its surface has undergone in 

 attaining its present condition, has a much wider scope. 



