10 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
[mammalia 
ROOMS II., III., IV. 
Are devoted to Sir Joseph Banks’s Herbarium, together with Sir 
Hans Sioane’s and other collections of dried plants. 
MAMMALIA SALOON. 
The Animal Kingdom, the arrangement and distribution of which 
the collection is intended to illustrate, has been divided into four great 
divisions, characterized by their general form and organization; some, 
as for example, the divisions which include the largest animals, and 
which, from their apparent complexity, have been considered as the 
more perfect, are peculiar for being provided with hard parts to support 
their bodies and give attachment to their muscles, which give them 
great rapidity and certainty in their motions. They are generally pro¬ 
vided with jointed members. In the Vertebrated animals, the hard part 
consists of an internal skeleton formed of bones united together by liga¬ 
ments, allowing them to have motion one on the other; one series 
of these bones is always destined to protect the brain and bases of the 
nerves ; hence the name of the group. The Articulated animals, on the 
contrary, have their bodies protected by a hard external skin, which is di¬ 
vided into rings v 7 hich move one on the other and form an armour, as 
it were, to protect the flesh and nerves; to allow the body to increase 
in size, this hard skin is shed at different periods of their lives, a new 
one having been previously formed under it, w 7 hich hardens on its being 
exposed to the air. 
The animals of the other divisions are destitute of any jointed skeleton, 
being naked, or if protected they are only covered by a shell formed 
of the hardened excretions of the body, or by chalky matter deposited 
in the pores of the skin, or in the cells in the flesh of the body. They 
are divided into the molluscous animals, ( Mollusca ,) which are generally 
free, gliding on a single central foot, with the head furnished with pairs 
of organs, and generally protected with a shell; while the radiated ani¬ 
mals ( Radiata ) are so called because they have generally all their 
organs placed in rays round the digestive cavity, and supported 
■■»y the calcareous matter which is deposited in the pores of the skin, 
or in the cells in the flesh of the body. This hard matter sometimes 
forms a solid mass, as in corals, and at others is in the form of variously 
shaped pieces placed side by side in the skin like tessellated pavement, 
arising from the chalky particles aggregating themselves as they are 
deposited round certain definite points. 
The collection of Animals is contained in two galleries, and for the 
convenience of exhibition is arranged in tw 7 o series.—The Vertebrated 
animals and such as are kept in spirits are exhibited in the wall cases. 
The hard parts of the Radiated, Annulose and Molluscous animals, as 
shells, corals, sea eggs, starfish, Crustacea and insects, are arranged in a 
series in the Table Cases of the several rooms. 
The Beasts or Mammalia form the first class of vertebrated ani¬ 
mals, which may be characterized as warm-blooded animals, covered 
with hah*, the females having peculiar organs which secrete milk for the 
nourishment of their young, which are born alive. 
