9 



whether ectures are or are not likely to he dc« 

 livered, and by what officers, in the British 

 Museum, affects the question of the space which 

 may be required for each department, as was ob- 

 served by the Superintendent of the Natural 

 History Departments in his report of the 12th of 

 June, 1856, with respect to those departments 

 only. 



With respect to the Zoological Department 

 the case is more difficult to be dealt with. Any 

 one walking through it can see how much the 

 specimens are crowded in the presses as well as 

 in the table-cases, and how inconveniently they 

 are necessarily placed for the purpose of exhi- 

 bition. No one specimen can be scientifically 

 examined without displacing two or three others. 

 The Osteological Collections, as well as many of 

 the specimens preserved in spirit, being placed in 

 the basement, are withdrawn altogether from pub- 

 lic exhibition, and their existence is known only to 

 scientific men, who see them and study them on 

 special application alone, and at great personal 

 inconvenience. The collection of insects is kept 

 in a gloomy room ten feet high, crowded with 

 presses, tables, assistants, officers, and visitors,^ lo 

 which access is obtained through a door leading 

 abruptly down several steps to a narrow, low, 

 dark passage,^ like the entrance to a cellar. It is 



Plan II., 30. 



^Plan II., 29. 



