At Kew Gardens there is a wonderful herbarium and general botanical collections very rich in types. The Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons devotes itself almost entirely to anatomy, both human and comparative and also to pathology. The Horniman museum, Forest Hill, S.E. owes its origin to col lections of a miscellaneous character brought together by John E. Horniman. In 1901 he presented to the London County Council, for the use of the people of London, the existing building and the whole of his collections. Since the museum came under the control of the London County Council its character has been transformed, both by the more precise definition of its scope and intention, and by the expansion and re-arrangement of the col lections along predetermined lines. It now deals with only two subjects, zoology and anthropology (including archaeology and ethnology). In general, its object may be said to be the illus tration of the working of the evolutionary principle in relation to animals and man, and to human artefacts.
The Liverpool museums are the largest of the provincial museums and owe their origin to two generous bene factors, (I) Lord Derby who presented his natural history col lections, and (2) Joseph Mayer who presented his collections of antiques to the corporation. There are six separate departments, viz.:—botany, geology, invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, archaeology and ethnology, while one section contains a large col lection of ship models and pictures illustrative of the history of shipping. There is also a large collection of ceramics. The Egyp tological collection is very extensive. There is also an aquarium. The zoological collections are extremely important more espe cially in ornithology which is very rich in types. One section is devoted to "old Liverpool." Manchester.—The Manchester museum fulfills a dual pur pose; it is a municipal museum and also a university museum. Instruction in science is given in the museum to ioo classes of elementary school children every week.
Bristol museum is now very important and con tains departments of geology, zoology, botany and archaeology. A section is devoted to Bristol antiquities.
Hull is a city of museums ; there are the Natural His tory museum, Wilberforce house, the museum of fisheries and shipping, the Mortimer collection of prehistoric antiquities, the museum of commerce and transport, and the Folk Lore museum in the Tithebarn, Easington.
Two large private museums are worthy of note, the zoological museum, Tring, belonging to Lord Rothschild which deals ex clusively with ornithology and entomology, and the Pitt Rivers museum at Farnham, Dorset, which is designed to illustrate the evolution of culture.
The Royal Scottish museum, Edinburgh, dates from 1854 and contains very valuable collections in the following departments, art and ethnography, natural history, technology and geology. The National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in Edinburgh is the outcome of a donation of a collection of an tiquities, coins and manuscripts by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1851. In the Kelvin Grove art gallery and museum in Glasgow there are extensive collections, the natural history and the shipping being the most important. The museums of the University of Glasgow are also noteworthy, the recently opened Zoological museum being remarkably fine.
The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff which was granted its Royal Charter in 1907 and opened by George V. in 1927 is a most remarkable institution. Its purpose is "to teach the world about Wales, and the Welsh people about their own fatherland." This purpose it fulfills by collecting and preserving all kinds of material bearing on the geology, botany, zoology and archaeology of Wales.
The Science museum at Dublin, and the museum at Belfast both contain science collections of importance.
In the British Isles there are about 462 museums; these may be divided into five main groups, (I) those devoted entirely to natural history (22) ; (2) historical collections including War Memorial houses (3o), Roman or Pre-Roman collections (15), Naval and Military museums ( o), and period museums (i6), total 71; (3) special teaching and research museums (6o), and (4) museums of industrial character (i6).* The remainder to the number of about 30o are museums of general character and the exhibits usually comprise at least something of archaeology, local antiquities, natural history and miscellaneous ethnographi cal objects, and sometimes war relics.
In Calcutta there are, (I) The Indian museum, which is especially rich in the marine fauna of the Indian Ocean and contains the finest collection of vertebrate fossils from the Si walik Hills, (2) The Geological museum of the Government Sur vey of India, and (3) The herbarium of the Royal Botanical gardens. In Bombay there are (I) The Victoria and Albert museum and (2) The museum of the Bombay Natural History Society which is mainly Zoological and contains the finest col lection of horned heads in India. The Government museum in Madras is also worthy of note.