1880.] 



] ■'resident's Address. 



85 



The Botanical collections are placed in the gallery over the minerals, 

 where the space for exhibition and the conveniences for study are 

 mnch greater than in their old quarters. 



The construction of the cases for the Zoological specimens, and the 

 ultimate removal of these collections, must depend upon the amount 

 of the Parliamentary vote for the purpose ; but under the most 

 favourable conditions it can hardly be hoped that this Department can 

 be open to the public or to students in less than two years from the 

 present time. 



The "Index Museum," designed by Professor Owen, will form a 

 prominent feature in the new museum. The object of it, in his words, 

 is "to show the type characters of the principal groups of organised 

 beings;" and " to convey to the great majority of visitors, who are 

 not naturalists, as much information and general notions of its aim 

 as the hall they will first enter and survey could be made to afford." 



One of the principal difficulties attending the transfer of the Natural 

 History Departments to a separate building consists in the provision 

 of books for the use of the keepers and their staff, as well as for 

 students who may visit the museum. Hitherto the separate collections 

 of books, known as departmental libraries, supplemented as occasion 

 might require from the main library of the museum, have sufficed for 

 all purposes. But now, when the departmental libraries have to stand 

 by themselves, it is impracticable to carry on even the current work of 

 arrangement without additional resources. For an adequate supply of 

 the necessary works a very large outlay would be required, supposing 

 that the works were in the market. But many of them are out of 

 print and have become scarce ; and a large grant of public money would 

 perhaps raise the market price almost in proportion to its magnitude. 

 This being so, it has been thought best, on the whole, by the Govern- 

 ment to make an annual grant to be expended from time to time as 

 favourable opportunities for purchase may offer. If it should prove 

 possible, and on other grounds desirable, to allow the Banks' Library 

 to follow the collections with which it has always been practically 

 connected, the wants of the Natural History Departments would (so 

 far as books up to the date of its bequeathment are concerned) be in a 

 great measure supplied. 



Another of the duties which falls officially on your President is to 

 take part in the organisation of technical education as .promoted by 

 the City and Guilds of London Institute, which is now incorporated 

 under the Companies Acts, 1862-80 as a registered association, and of 

 which the Presidents of the Royal Society, the Chemical Society, the 

 Institute of Civil Engineers, and the Chairman of the Council of the 

 Society of Arts, are members. In the Memorandum and Articles of 

 Association of the Institute, its objects are fully set forth. They may 

 be summarised under the following heads : — 



VOL. XXXI. h 



