18 
OBJECTS OF THE MUSEUM AND 
Geological 
Department. 
Introductory 
Collection. 
The specimens 
all arranged in 
three series. 
existence to a period of scientific culture in which the terms 
Zoology and Botany were limited to the study of the existing 
forms of animal and plant life, and the extinct or fossil forms 
were associated with the minerals, rather than with their living 
representatives. This arrangement prevailed in the British 
Museum until the year 1857. The fossils were then severed 
from this incongruous connection, and placed in a separate 
department for which the name of " Geology " was reserved.* 
The result is that there are now two distinct zoological and 
botanical collections in the building, one containing the re- 
mains of all the animals and plants which have lived through 
successive ages of the world's history from the earliest dawn of 
life down to close upon the present time, and the other con- 
taining only those living at the particular period in which we 
dwell. Notwithstanding the objections which may be urged 
against this primary division of living things, it is one which 
prevails largely in museums, and which, owing to certain con- 
veniences, as well as to the difficulty and expense of re- 
arranging extensive collections and reorganising the staff in 
charge of them, will probably be retained for some time to come. 
Besides the four above-mentioned departments, into which the 
collection is divided for the purposes of custody and administra- 
tion, each of which is under the charge of an officer called " keeper " 
and a special staff of assistants, there is a fifth, at present under 
the immediate supervision of the Director, and arranged in the 
Central Hall, which is intended to be an introduction to all the 
others. The formation of this has only recently commenced, 
and owing to the difficulty of procuring the most illustrative 
specimens when required, and the time needed for their pre- 
paration and arrangement, some years must elapse before it 
can be completed. 
When the last-named collection is more fully developed, the 
whole of the specimens contained in the Museum, whether 
Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, will be arranged in three distinct 
series, each having its definite end and purpose. 
* Palaeontology, or the study of ancient living beings, would have been a 
more appropriate designation, as Geology, the science which investigates the 
history of the earth, and the changes which its surface has undergone in 
attaining its present condition, has a much wider scope. 
