BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). 
15 
OBJECTS OF THE MUSEUM AND GENEEAL AEEA^TGE- 
MENT OE ITS COISTTENTS. 
STATURAL History is an old term, used to describe the study ^se of the 
of all the processes or laws of the Universe, and the results History, 
of the action of those processes or laws upon the materials of 
which it is composed, luhich are independent of the agency of 
man.^ 
It is thus contrasted with the history of Man and of his 
works, and the changes which have been wrought in the 
Universe by his intervention. 
This distinction afforded a convenient and rational basis for 
the division of the numerous and multifarious objects which 
were collected together in the old building of the Museum at 
Bloomsbury. When it was decided, for the causes described in 
the previous chapter, to effect a separation of the collections, 
those that were purely the products of what are commonly 
called " natural " forces were removed to the new building at 
South Kensington, while all those which showed the effects 
of Man's handiwork remained at Bloomsbury. Like most 
others in nature, this distinction cannot be applied too 
rigidly. Such lines of demarcation almost always overlap. 
Eor instance, examples of modification of animal or plant 
structure under Man's influence will legitimately find a place 
in a Museum of Natural History, especially as they may afford 
illustrations of the mode of working of natural laws. 
Processes or laws cannot, however, be satisfactorily demon- 
strated in a museum ; therefore such branches of knowledge as 
deal chiefly with them, as Astronomy, Physics, Geology (in 
the stricter sense of the word), and the experimental sciences, 
as Chemistry and Physiology, though essentially belonging to 
the domain of Natural History, have not found a place here. It 
is only the results of the working of these processes or laws as 
shown in the modifications of the arrangement of the elementary 
substances of which the material of the Universe is composed, 
* " Natural history — is the history of such facts or effects of nature as 
have no dcpeudencc on man's will." — Ilohhes, 1651. 
