1885.] 
Analyses of Books. 
IOI 
“6. Specimens of nests and habitations, galls and their 
tenants, eggs and egg-cases, webs and tissues ; larva 
and pupa ; timber and stone pierced by molluscs, 
Crustacea, and inserts. 
“ 7 - Examples of mimicry; of protecting colouration of un- 
usual contrast between male and female of the same 
species ; malformations, &c. 
“ 8. Extended series of species and varieties belonging to the 
group, to be seen on application to the curator. 
“ 9. Economic products of the group used in manufactures 
and arts. [Would not this department belong rather to 
a technological or industrial museum ?] 
“ I0 - Models, drawings, diagrams, &c., of the anatomy and 
embryology of animals belonging to the group. 
“ 11. Schedule indicating the systematic position of the group 
in the sub-kingdom to which it belongs. 
We surely need not bring any formal proof that a museum 
embodying these features would be far more instructive to the 
student and the observer than anything which has yet been 
realised. 
Passing over much suggestive matter we come to the author’s 
remarks on the British Museum in its splendid place of exile. 
Following upon his first impression “ how vast a work has been 
done!” comes a second, “at least equally strong, how much 
remains yet to be done ! And a concluding conviction might 
perhaps follow— how much has been left desirable which can 
never be done, or only with extreme difficulty, in the present 
building. Whatever may be the architectural merits of the 
edifice very much has been sacrificed to them.” 
We must beg leave to expand this remark. The impression 
prevails among outsiders that in the new building in Cromwell 
Road — why not better Darwin Road ? — ample space for every 
department is secured. This is quite a mistake. Nothing can 
be a piece of greater folly than to sacrifice the efficiency of such 
a place to architectural display. 
“ The walls are thick, the servants thin, 
The gods without, the devil within,” 
has been long ago pronounced to be the common condition of 
museums. To some extent these lines are applicable to the new 
building. 
The curators are too thin in point of numbers. The extensive 
department of Entomology, for instance, is committed to the 
charge of three curators only ! We know these gentlemen 
personal'.y, and can testify to their zeal and efficiency; but they 
are too few. 
Mr. Higgins, preferring a plain building with ample space to 
the palatial structure in question, writes ; — “ I fear the West End 
