Report of Society's Meetings. 207 
progress of the Museum is greatly impeded thereby ; 
while the necessity of a suitable working room, pro- 
perly fitted, so urgently insisted upon in my last 
and previous reports, has still to be brought to your 
notice. The need of a technical library furnishes 
another hindrance to the exact performance of 
special work : and these three desiderata,, together make 
up a difficulty which few, if indeed any one, 
can estimate to the degree from which the Curator 
suffers from it. 
I am greatly pleased to be able to report that one of 
the chief difficulties formerly experienced, that is, the 
proper supervision and charge of the Museum during the 
hours when it is thrown open to the public, has been 
remedied through the kindness of the Inspector-General 
of Police, who has given directions that the Museum is 
to be treated as one of the chief points for duty by 
special officers. This was rendered necessary here, as 
in the large public Museums generally, by the large 
numbers of visitors of all classes : and to us, with a very 
small and already insufficient staff, the presence of a 
police officer is not only a relief, but a definite assist- 
ance, since it sets free the time of the Curator, from a 
sort of general police supervision, for the performance of 
special Museum work which he alone can at present 
perform. 
The Institution is now opened every day of the week; 
to the public, free ; and during the past year was open 
for 337 days, having been closed on the first 26 Sundays 
and on Christmas Day and Good Friday, but opened on 
the public Bank holidays, and on every Sunday since 
June. On Mondays it is open from 10 a.m. — 4 p.m., 
