552 Zoology. 



Progress in the Collection of Insects in the British 

 Museum since the purchase by the Government of 

 the Collection of Sir Hans Sloane in 1753. 



At the time of its acquisition the Sloane Museum is said to have 

 contained 5394 Insects; there is, however, evidence that this 

 number included Arachnida and Myriapoda. The present number 

 of Hexapoda in the Museum collection amounts approximately to 

 1,018,000. 



Until the Museum was opened to the public at the com- 

 mencement of 1759, it was hardly to be expected that many 

 additions would be made to the collections, and it seems clear 

 that for many years subsequently the accessions to this class 

 were extremely few ; indeed, in Edwards' " Lives of the Founders 

 of the British Museum " (Trubner & Co., 1870), p. 334, we read: 

 " To the Zoological Collections, the additions made, whether by 

 gift or by purchase — save as the result, more or less direct, of 

 ' Voyages of Discovery,' . . . were for many years very un- 

 important." 



A study of a "Synopsis of the Contents of the British 

 Museum," published by Messrs. Taylor, of Shoe Lane, indicates 

 that in 1815 the whole of the Insects were exhibited to the 

 public in two cases, in Room X. of the upper floor in Montague 

 House, in such a way as to show the distribution of the Class 

 into Orders. Some years later, however, a private collection 

 contained in cabinets was available for students, provided that 

 they made application to the oflicer in charge two days before 

 their intended visit, as only a limited number of visitors could be 

 admitted at the same time.* 



When it is borne in mind that up to 1808 all visitors to the 

 Museum had to be admitted by ticket (to secure which certain 

 formalities had to be gone through), and that consequently "the 

 aggregate number of persons admitted as visitors — exclusive of 



* " Synopsis of the Contents," ed. 26, 1832, p. 36, footnote. 



