46 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. II. 



1 Another element of my " Annual Reports " 

 was the deteriorating influence on valuable spe- 

 cimens of the storage vaults, and the danger of 

 such accumulations to the entire Museum and its 

 priceless contents. And here, perhaps, you may 

 deem some explanation needful of the grounds of 

 the latter consideration addressed to economical 

 granters of the national funds. 



' The number of specimens preserved in spirits 

 of wine amounted to thousands. Any accidental 

 breakage, with conflagration, in the subterraneous 

 localities contiguous with the heating apparatus of 

 the entire British Museum would have been as 

 destructive to the building as the gunpowder was 

 meant to be when stored in the vaults beneath 

 King James's Houses of Parliament. 



' At this crisis the " Times," after the stormy 

 debate of May 19, 1862, made the following 

 appeal to me : " Let Mr. Owen describe exactly 

 the kind of building that will answer his purpose, 

 that will give space for his whales and light for 

 his humming-birds and butterflies. The House 

 of Commons will hardly, for very shame, give a 

 well-digested scheme so rude a reception as it did 

 on Monday night." 4 



' My answer to this appeal was little more than 

 some amplification, with additional examples, of 

 the several topics embodied in the original report, 

 and my little book " On the Extent and Aims of 



4 The Times, May 21, in a leader on the Museum Debate. 



