656 Zoology. 



in the Department ; the remainder, in that of Adam White. 

 Since the first specimens entered in this register formed part of 

 Dr. Leach's collection, which was acquired by the Trustees in 

 1826, it is evident that the date of commencement of registration 

 of accessions is not earlier than that year. 



In 1838 the first dated register was started, the Arachnida, 

 Myriopoda, Crustacea, and Insects being all included in the one 

 volume. The Arachnida and Myriopoda continued to be entered 

 in the Insect register, often under the vague and comprehensive 

 heading " Aptera," until 1889, when a separate register was com- 

 menced for them, and the method of registration followed in the 

 case of the vertebrated animals, instead of that practised for the 

 insects, was adopted. 



Up to 1870 or thereabouts, the collection of Arachnida con- 

 sisted of a number of dried and pinned specimens contained, 

 with scarcely an attempt at systematic arrangement, in one of the 

 old 40-drawer cabinets. No special attention was paid to them, 

 and apart from the account of the Arachnida written by G. R. 

 Gray, in vol. xiii. of Griffith's "Animal Kingdom," 1833, and a 

 small number of papers by Adam White, containing descriptions 

 of a few species, no publications based upon the Museum material 

 were issued. 



Subsequently to 1863, the collection was under the charge of 

 Mr. A. G. Butler, who was appointed an Assistant in that year. 

 Since Mr. Butler's first paper upon the group was published in 

 1873, it may be inferred that he commenced the arrangement of 

 the collection in new 20-drawer cabinets in about the year 1870. 

 The groups he selected for special study are mentioned below 

 under their appropriate ordinal headings. Most of his descriptive 

 and systematic work was based upon dried specimens, the spirit 

 collection at that time being practically non-existent. During 

 subsequent years its growth was slow, and in 1886, when the 

 Arachnida were placed under Mr. Pocock's care, the spirit col- 

 lection, composed of sorted and unsorted material of this class, 

 was contained in one table-case in the spirit house. At the pre- 

 sent time the collection, including both dried and spirit-preserved 

 material, is contained in four 20-drawer cabinets and one 

 40-drawer cabinet, and in twenty-four closely packed table- 

 cases in the spirit house. 



In 1904 the collection of Arachnida consisted of about 

 31,000 specimens, 3,500 named species and 400 unnamed species. 



