1846-47 LETTER FROM LORD F. EGERTON 275 



museum is, therefore, between those series of 

 skeletons of which they present intermediate or 

 transitional structures.' This excellent plan, 

 though approved by the Council, and carried out 

 in the museum, never appeared in print. 



Lord Francis Egerton to Richard Owen 



18 Belgrave Square : March 27, 1846. 



' My dear Sir, — I have a strong inclination 

 to take some opportunity after Easter of moving 

 for a committee of inquiry into the state of the 

 various collections of the British Museum. My 

 general view of the case is this. Books and anti- 

 quities are accumulating there at a rate which 

 must soon raise the question of further and very 

 extensive accommodation. For the moment, per- 

 haps, space enough is left to allow of the whole 

 subject being considered without the hurry of 

 immediate pressure. 



' This, therefore, seems to me a fit and conve- 

 nient juncture for considering whether it may not 

 be possible to effect a great and salutary rearrange- 

 ment of the public collections, founded on the 

 simple and intelligible principle of the separation 

 of mind from matter, placing in one department 

 everything which concerns intellectual man, and 

 in one or more other departments everything 

 else. 



' If it could be feasible to make incidental 



T 2 



