EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
The British Museum Blue Book, giving among other returns a "Statement of the Progress made in the Arrangement and Description of the Collections, and an Account of Objects added to them in the year 1896," has been issued. Its perusal leaves no doubt as to the prosperity of our great institution, and is as satisfactory to the zoologist as to the British ratepayer. To really estimate its present flourishing condition it may be well to refer to the estimation in which it was held some seventy years ago. In the first number of the first volume of 'The Magazine of Natural History,' published in 1829, a writer thus expresses himself:—"There is no country that has the same facilities for procuring objects of natural history from every region of the globe as Great Britain; there is no country where larger sums of money have been expended to procure them; and yet there is no country in the civilized world where there are fewer facilities offered to the student of natural history than in England." Again, and in the same volume, we read:—"The zoological collections in the British Museum may be briefly dismissed. The whole collection of insects is contained in four small cases; nor are these completely filled. The birds and mammiferous quadrupeds are arranged according to the order of Linnaeus, but want of room prevents their being placed in situations sufficiently accessible for inspection. The species of quadrupeds are not numerous, owing, I believe, to the decay which too speedily takes place in stuffed specimens, particularly in the atmosphere of London. From the liability to decay, the difficulty with which they are replaced, and the great space they occupy, stuffed specimens of quadrupeds might perhaps be conveniently dismissed from our collections, except of such rare animals as can seldom, if ever, be brought alive to Europe."
An inspection of our National Galleries is now the best answer to the warnings of this Cassandra; well-stocked entomological rooms represent the four badly filled small cases; the birds are unrivalled, and our British ornithological fauna may be said to be seen in a state of nature; while as to the boycotted quadrupeds, the mammals are one of the strong features of the institution, and are rapidly becoming too numerous for the sole hands of the talented mammalogist in charge. It is impossible to allude to the many acquisitions of the last year, but we may draw attention to some of the principal additions derived from "Purchases," "Bequests," and "Presents."
