THE ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS. 
81 
due in large measure to the hearty co-operation of many 
contributors both in India and abroad. Among workers in 
this country who are not members of the Museum staff, 
Mr. E. Brunetti and Major J. Stephenson may be mentioned 
in particular. 
The zoologists of the Indian Museum have always recog¬ 
nized that zoological work undertaken in connection with a 
museum, even if much of it is done in the field, must be 
largely of a systematic or taxonomic nature; but they have 
endeavoured to infuse therein a spirit of philosophy, and 
lately have been encouraged in the belief that taxonomy 
itself will fail of its object if it be divorced from bionomics 
and geography. 
Without books systematic zoology is impossible. Calcutta 
zoologists are, therefore, fortunate in having at their disposal 
a library that is certainly no less complete than that of most 
English centres of the science. The library is that of the zoo¬ 
logical section of the Indian Museum. It now includes some 
twelve thousand volumes, and has increased in the last few 
years at the rate of over six hundred volumes a year. Where 
it is deficient is mainly in some of the older works that have 
already become classics, and in the full issues of certain 
periodicals; and most of these in both cases are to be obtained 
from the libraries of the Asiatic Society of Bengal or the 
Geological Survey of India. The generosity with which the 
Museum library is treated by the Trustees and by the Educa¬ 
tion Department of the Government of India is perhaps 
the strongest proof of the encouragement given to zoological 
research of recent years by both bodies. 
Another proof lies in the construction of the new zoo¬ 
logical laboratories erected in 1912 on the top of the old 
building. Apart from a public lecture-room, one corner 
of which is fitted up for microtome work, and a photogra¬ 
phic room, they cover an area of 6620 square feet and are 
now well supplied with the necessary apparatus. The thanks 
of all concerned in planning and using them are due to 
Mr. H. A. Crouch, Consulting Architect to the Government 
of Bengal, who showed a readiness to fall in with the wishes 
