1856-81 SCHEME FOR MUSEUM 29 



allotted to the collections. The convenience of 

 the arrangements he had been enabled to make 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields strongly forced upon his 

 notice the chaos at the British Museum, and even 

 as early as the year 1846 he addressed a letter 

 (vol. i. p. 276) to Lord Francis Egerton, in which 

 we may see the commencement of the scheme 

 which began to near completion in 1881. 



Others besides Owen had fully recognised the 

 gravity of the situation at the British Museum, 

 for in 1854 John Edward Gray, the keeper of 

 Zoology, had reported on the unfitness of damp 

 vaults for the storage of zoological material, and 

 prayed for additional accommodation. The appeal 

 was referred by the Trustees to the architect, and 

 on receiving the latter's report, they * declined to 

 adopt Dr. Gray's suggestion,' and recommended 

 'that steps should be taken to obviate the deteriora- 

 tion of the specimens ' by treatment of the vaults 

 in which they were stored. In the renewed 

 appeals of Dr. Gray, the Trustees apparently set 

 aside the architect as specialist on natural history, 

 and recommended the erection of 'an additional 

 gallery to the eastern Zoological Gallery, and the 

 substitution of skylights for the side windows, 

 with a view to a further gallery at an elevation 

 above the floor of the one in use.' 



Professor Owen entered the service of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum on May 26, 1856. 

 As already stated, he had been offered and 



