REPORT ON TIIE BRITISII MUSEUM. 
549 
LVII.—Report on the Departments of Natural History in 
the British Museum for the year 1862. # 
At the period when the Natural History had assigned to it its 
share of exhibition space in the present building, a certain proportion 
of the specimens of each department had to be preserved in store. 
The proportion of these specimens was greatest in the Depart¬ 
ment of Zoology; and the accumulation of unexhibited or store- 
specimens in the localities assigned for their reception had become 
so great, and the condition of those localities was such, as to call for 
a Deport and representation as to the unsafe state of the specimens 
from the Keeper of the Zoology, dated 16th January, 1854. Addi¬ 
tional space, if not for exhibition, yet suitable by dryness and venti¬ 
lation for the better preservation of the store-specimens, was asked 
for. 
From that date to the present, circumstances have prevented the 
acquisition of the desired additional space; nevertheless there has 
been an annual, and, in most years, augmenting addition of choice 
rarities to the vaults and recesses assigned for storage. 
The arrangements made after the Report of 1854, for heating and 
ventilation, have, in a great degree, prevented the effects of damp; 
but the degree of heat for this purpose injuriously affects the speci¬ 
mens preserved in spirits of wine, by accelerating its decomposition 
and evaporation. 
Each successive year of such storage increases the difficulty of 
keeping the specimens in a good state, and concentrates the time 
and labour of the staff on works of preservation, to the arrest of 
those of progress and improvement. The tickets, also, of the speci¬ 
mens rapidly perish or become effaced in the atmosphere of the 
vaults ; they are as often renewed : but during the past year painted 
labels have been progressively substituted for the written records 
attached to the store specimens. 
By these labours, uninterruptedly attended to, the stored and 
unexhibited specimens, many thousands in number, may be reported 
in the following condition:— 
The unstuffed specimens of Mammalia are in a state fit for the 
purposes of scientific examination and comparison, and most of them 
in a state fit for future preparation and exhibition. 
The Bird Skins in boxes are in good condition. Some of those 
kept in cupboards in the vaults begin to show the effects of damp; 
but not, as yet, to the detriment of their utility for purposes of com¬ 
parison : they are not easily accessible for study. 
* Reprinted from a Return to an Order of the House of Commons for an Ac¬ 
count “ of the Income and Expenditure of the British Museum for the Financial 
Year ended the 31st day of March, 18G3, &c.” 
