46 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. II. 
‘ Another element of my “Annual Reports” 
was the deteriorating influence on valuable spe- 
cimens of the storage vaults, and the danger of 
such accumulations to the entire Museum and its 
priceless contents. And here, perhaps, you may 
deem some explanation needful of the grounds of 
the latter consideration addressed to economical 
granters of the national funds. 
‘ The number of specimens preserved in spirits 
of wine amounted to thousands. Any accidental 
breakage, with conflagration, in the subterraneous 
localities contiguous with the heating apparatus of 
the entire British Museum would have been as 
destructive to the building as the gunpowder was 
rneant to be when stored in the vaults beneath 
King James’s Houses of Parliament. 
‘ At this crisis the “ Times,” after the stormv 
debate of May 19, 1862, made the followino- 
appeal to me; “ Let Mr. Owen describe exactly 
the kind of building that will answer his purpose, 
that will give space for his whales and light for 
his humming-birds and butterflies. The House 
of Commons will hardly, for very shame, give a 
well-digested scheme so rude a reception as it did 
on Monday night.” ^ 
‘ My answer to this appeal was little more than 
some amplification, with additional examples, of 
the several topics embodied in the original report 
and my little book “ On the Extent and Aims of 
‘ The Times, May 21, in a leader on the Museum Debate. 
