41. THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM.
ADMISSION. The Museum is open free daily throughout the year, except on Christmas Day and Good Friday. On week-days it is open from 10 a.m. till 5 or 6 p.m. On Sunday it is open from 2.30 p.m. till 6. Umbrella, etc., may be left at the entrance (no charge).
GUIDE LECTURER on week-days at 12 noon and 3 p.m. (no charge).
CATALOGUES. Summary guide to the Museum, 3d.; special guide-books for the various sections.
STUDENTS. Besides the collections shown to the public the Museum contains highly important study or reserve collections, which from a scientific standpoint are its most valuable contents. These may be consulted by students under conditions similar to those applying to the Reading Room of the British Museum. Apply in writing to the director, Sir Sidney F. Harmer, F.R.S.
The Natural History Museum, in Cromwell Road, South Kensington, a little to the west of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Walk 44), is a branch of the British Museum. It originated in the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, which included zoological and geological specimens and an extensive herbarium, and were purchased for the nation and lodged in Montagu House in 1754. The present building, erected in the Romanesque style in 1873-80 by Alfred Waterhouse, consists of a central block with two towers, 192 feet high, flanked by wings ending in pavilions.
Ground Floor. On passing the main portal we find ourselves in the CENTRAL HALL, which is 170 feet long, 97 feet wide, and 72 feet high. In front is a bronze statue of Sir Richard Owen (1804-92), by T. Brock; on the right is a marble statue of Professor T. H. Huxley (1825-95), by Onslow Ford. The Glass-cases in the centre of the hall illustrate points of special interest which cannot appropriately be included in the systematic collections. The subjects illustrated include the variation of species under the influence of domestication (fowls and pigeons); the seasonal and sexual changes of plumage in ruffs, reeves, and wild ducks; the adaptation of colour to surrounding conditions; the protective resemblance of desert animals, insects, etc.; albinism and melanism; dimorphism, illustrated by series of crows and goldfinches. Scattered about the hall are a series of cases containing large models, drawings, and specimens of Disease-Spreading Insects (malaria-mosquitoes, tsetse-flies, plague-fleas, ticks, lice, bilharzia, etc.); specimens are exhibited under microscopes in front of Bays I and X. Near the Owen statue is a case showing the danger to health caused by house-flies. In the centre of the hall is a fine specimen of an African elephant, 11 feet 4 inches in height; beneath it is a shrew-mouse, one of the smallest British mammals.
The bays round the Central Hall are devoted to an Introductory Collection, or 'index museum' to illustrate the structure of the various forms of animal and plant life. The bays on the left (west) side are devoted to the vertebrates: I. Skeleton and teeth of mammals, including man; II. Skin, antlers, classification, and dissections of mammals; III. Birds; IV. Reptiles and amphibians; V. Fishes. In front of Bay III is a case of birds beneficial to agriculture; of Bay V, a case showing the results of fisheries investigations and two frames containing cuckoos' eggs. Under the staircase (close by) and on the pillars of the staircase is the Gould collection of humming-birds. Bay VI, on the opposite (east) side of the hall, comprises experiments in cross-breeding, examples of burrowing animals, and the development of embryos. Cases in front are devoted to the biology of waterworks, marine boring animals, and Mimicry among animals; to the right (North), under the staircase, is a case of canaries. Bay VII illustrates modes of flight (under the microscope, wings of moths and feathers of birds). Bay VIII is devoted to British trees, Bay IX to the cryptogams and to plants mentioned in the Bible, Bay X to seed-bearing plants.
Behind the great staircase is the NORTH HALL, devoted mainly to Domesticated Animals, including hybrids and other abnormalities. Against the wall of the staircase is a section of a 'Big Tree' of California (Sequoia gigantea), 15 feet in diameter, with 1335 rings of annual growth. In the north part of this hall is an important collection showing the injuries done to plants by various insects, with hints as to methods of destruction; in the window-cases are parasites of man and domestic animals and insects injurious to property.
In the west wing of the ground-floor, to the left of the entrance, is the BIRD GALLERY. The wall-cases contain specimens of the principal genera arranged in systematic order (beginning on the left or window side). In the 6th and 7th bays on the right are models of the extinct dodo and great auk. A series of extremely interesting groups shows the nesting habits of British birds. In the pavilion at the west end of the gallery are large wall-cases, on either side of the archway, showing a group of sea-birds from the Bass Rock and eagles and buzzards with their eyries. The rest of the pavilion is devoted to an exhibition of British Land and Fresh Water Vertebrates. On the right (North) are the larger mammals and fishes; the smaller mammals and reptiles are in the centre; and the birds are in the large cases to the left. Two cabinets by the central west window contain eggs of British birds.
Parallel with the Bird Gallery on the north, and connected with it by three passages, is the long CORAL GALLERY, containing the collection of corals and sponges, and the continuation of the humming-bird collection.
To the north of and at right angles to this gallery is a series of galleries in the following order (from east to west). The FISH GALLERY is nearest the Central Hall. The INSECT GALLERY contains also the crabs and lobsters in its south half; the collections of British butterflies and moths, and the specimens of galls, and nests of ants, wasps, etc., are of special interest. The REPTILE GALLERY includes models of extinct dinosaurs (Diplodocus carnegii, nearly 85 feet long and 13 feet high, from Wyoming, U.S.A.; an iguanodon; and a triceratops); a large table-case contains the amphibians (salamanders and frogs). The small STARFISH GALLERY is devoted to starfishes, worms, sea-urchins, etc. The westernmost SHELL GALLERY contains also the cephalopods (octopuses, argonauts, etc.) and (West wall) a series of British shells.
Thence we cross the Coral Gallery, turn immediately to the right, and descend a staircase to the WHALE ROOM, which contains models and skeletons of the dolphin, narwhal, sperm-whale (54 feet long), right-whale (49 feet), and the rorqual or fin-whale (68 feet); also remains of extinct cetaceans. In the narrow passage leading to the staircase is the Balston collection of humming-birds.
In the east wing of the ground-floor, to the right of the entrance, is the FOSSIL COLLECTION, arranged for the most part zoologically. The main gallery, 280 feet long, contains the remains of Extinct Mammals. On the right or window side are remains of prehistoric man, including (first bay) casts of the skull found at Piltdown in Sussex and of the Galilee skull (discovered 1925); by the window, a series of flint implements. The following bays on the same side contain bones and teeth of the apes, carnivora, cave-bears, Ungulata or horse-family, etc. In the 7th bay are the skull and remains of the sivatherium, a gigantic Indian ruminant. The bays on the left (North) side of the gallery are devoted to the Proboscidea (dinotheres, mastodons, and elephants); including, in Case 31 (left), the remains of the 'Chatham elephant.' In the middle line of the gallery are a complete skeleton of a mastodon from Missouri; the skeleton and mounted skin of an Indian elephant; the skull of a mammoth from Ilford, Essex; skeletons of the extinct Irish elk; complete model and skulls of an arsinoitherium from Egypt; models of a toxodon from the Argentine and of an American dinoceras. Beside the skeleton of Steller's seacow (Rhytina gigas) from Behring Island are mounted specimens of its existing representatives, the dugong and the manatee (to the left). In the pavilion at the east end of the gallery is the order Edentata, including a model of the megatherium, the largest of the ground-sloths. To the left is a complete skeleton of a mylodon. In front of the megatherium are portions of the skins of a grypotherium. By the central east window is a glyptodon, or gigantic armadillo. In the north-west wall-case (No. 27) are remains of extinct marsupials, including the diprotodon. On the south side of the pavilion are the Extinct Birds, including the archï¾µopteryx from Bavaria (Case 13) and a series of the wingless moas (dinornis) from New Zealand. The gigantic eggs of the ï¾µpyornis of Madagascar (Case DD) should be noticed. On the top of Case 23 (entrance-wall) is a plaster reproduction of the Diatrema Steini, a gigantic running bird (7 feet high) from Wyoming (1921).
The long corridor to the north of the front gallery contains a magnificent Collection of Extinct Reptiles. On the south side are the great sea-lizards (ichthyosaurians and plesiosaurians) from the lias formation; on the north are the remains of the dinosaurs, the largest of all land-animals. In the middle of the gallery (east to west) are the Ophthalmosaurus icenicus, a portion of the skeleton of the Cetiosaurus leedsi from Peterborough, which is allied to the diplodocus, the skull of a triceratops, and various remains of plesiosaurians and pliosaurians. At the east end of the gallery are the pterodactyls or flying reptiles; at the west end, a complete skeleton of a pariasaurus from South Africa.
The galleries on the north side, running at right angles, contain (from west to east) the fossil fishes, cephalopods, invertebrates, shells, corals, protozoa, and plants, and the stratigraphical collection. On the top of Case 5 (West wall), in the Invertebrate Gallery, is the Inoceramus platinus, a gigantic oyster, 3 feet in diameter (from Kansas; 1921).
First Floor. We return to the Central Hall and ascend the grand staircase, on the first landing of which is a marble statue of Charles Darwin (1809-82), by Sir J. E. Boehm. At the head of the left (West) flight are memorials to Captain Fred. C. Selous, who fell in German East Africa in 1917, and other naturalists. At the top, entered from either corridor, is a Refreshment Room. The east (right-hand) corridor of the Central Hall contains the giraffes and four specimens of their near relative the okapi, discovered in the Congo Forest by Sir H. H. Johnston in 1891. The remainder of the east and the south and west corridors (badly lighted) are occupied by the African antelopes, a. part of the Museum's unique series.
The LOWER MAMMAL GALLERY, at the south end of the west corridor, above the Bird Gallery, contains mostly stuffed specimens of recent mammals. The systematic arrangement of the series begins on the right (North) side, with the egglaying platypus and echidna of Australia, the lowest of living mammals.
At the south end of the east corridor is the entrance to the MINERAL GALLERY, above the Fossil Collection. On the wall outside are examples of ornamental stones. Inside the gallery, in the window-cases on the left (North), are introductory collections illustrating the characters and classification of minerals (Cases I-IV) and of rocks (Cases V-X). The window-cases on the opposite (South) side of the gallery contain a collection of typical rocks. Cases D and E, by the entrance walls, contain isolated crystals and models. In the centre of the gallery is a classified general collection of minerals. Cases 1 and 2 contain native elements; in Case II is the 'Colenso Diamond' (130 carats) presented by Ruskin and in Ig are models of famous diamonds, including the 'Cullinan' (3025+ carats, uncut). Cases 3d-8e contain the sulphides and sulphur salts; in 8b is a unique mass of proustite, blood-red silver ore from Chili (protected from the light). Next come the chlorides (8f-8h) and fluorides (7e-9c); then the large group of the oxides (10a-15h), including examples of spinel (10e), pitchblende or uraninite (10h), chrysoberyl (9e), corundum (9f), amethyst (14g, 14h), jasper (13g), Agate (16b), and opal (16f, 16g). In 13h is a piece of jasper with a remarkable resemblance to a portrait of Chaucer. In Cases 17a-22d are the carbonates, including malachite (22b-d); then the silicates (22e-34c), including jade (24d), Topaz (26a-d), emerald (30c) and Tourmaline (33a-c); finally the sulphates, phosphates, etc. Case 41 contains organic compounds (coal and amber), Case 42 enclosures in crystals, artificial minerals, and recent additions, Case 43 recent additions and new minerals. In the pavilion at the east end of the gallery are the larger mineral specimens and the meteorites, including one which fell at Melbourne, 3+ tons in weight; in the south-west corner is a case with a collection of forms of native silica arranged by Ruskin, and under the archway to the pavilion are two cases of precious stones (one with examples of those mentioned in the Bible). Cases 44-46 (near the windows) contain pseudomorphs, i.e. minerals with forms proper to other minerals. A case of selenite and calcite illustrates the double refractive properties of the latter.
Second Floor. At the top of the staircase is a marble statue of Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), by Chantrey. On the wall above is a series of fine heads of Indian big game. To the right (West) is the UPPER MAMMAL GALLERY, with the anthropoid apes and monkeys in the centre of the room, and the bats, insectivora, rodents, and lemurs in wall-cases on the right. The left side of the gallery is devoted to Anthropology, with skeletons, skulls, plaster busts, and photographs of the different races of mankind.
The east wing of the second floor contains the BOTANICAL GALLERY. Outside are cases illustrating insectivorous plants, the fertilization of flowers, and plant abnormalities. The system of classification, illustrated by dried specimens, drawings, sections, etc., starts on the left side of the gallery with the dicotyledonous plants. In the last bay on the left begin the monocotyledonous plants, followed by the gymnosperms and cryptogams on the right side, and ending in an interesting collection of models of British fungi. Other cases illustrate climbing plants (2nd bay on the left), adaptations for defence (3rd bay), parasitic plants (5th bay), the dispersal of seeds (4th bay on the right), etc. A collection of British plants is exhibited in glazed frames, the lichens being arranged in two cabinets of drawers. At the end of the gallery are some of the larger specimens of palms, while from the roof is suspended a bamboo from Burma, 81 feet long.
A partition separates the public gallery from the students' department, which contains the herbarium of flowering plants from the whole world, a separate collection of British plants, the herbaria of Sir Hans Sloane and other famous botanists, a library, and a collection of drawings of plants.
