constituting altogether in specimens the sum
total of 4659. Of reptiles we could boast--species 600, specimens
1300; fish 1000 specimens. These figures did not contrast favourably
with the Paris Museum as in the days of old for now Paris stood:
Mammals, species 500; birds, species 2300; grand total of specimens
6000. Of fish the French had four times as many as we (and beat us,
proportionately, in other sections), while we were far in advance in
this class of the Vienna and Berlin Museums. In shells (not fossils),
London and Paris were equal and much superior to Berlin and Leyden. In
1848 an extraordinary increase (marking the great interest taken in
taxidermical science) had taken place; we now had added to the British
Museum since 1836, 29,595 specimens, comprising 5797 mammals, 13,414
birds, 4112 reptiles, 6272 fish.

In mammals and birds we held the proud position of having the finest
and most extensive collection in the world, while in reptiles and fish
we were again beaten by Paris. In proof of the growing interest taken
in natural history, we find that in 1860 the number of visitors to the
natural history department was greatly in excess of all the other
departments; and at the present time the attendance has greatly
increased, as also the objects exhibited, a fact patent to all who
will take the trouble to visit the British Museum, or to inspect the
official catalogues published from time to time, a synopsis of which
cannot at present be given owing to their extent and variety; but we
can assume, I think, that we have as complete a natural history
collection as is to be found in any of the museums of the world.
[Footnote: Some idea of the extent of the National Natural History
Collections may be gathered from the pages of the recently-published
British Museum "Catalogues" 1874-82, where, in many instances, the
number of specimens of a certain order of birds contained in the
Museum falls very little short of the ascertained number of species
for the whole of the world.]

Though taxidermy flourished, as we see, for some years previous to the
Great Exhibition of 1851, yet that decidedly gave a considerable
impetus to the more correct and artistic delineation of animals,
especially in what may be called the grotesque school instituted by
the Germans, which, though it may perhaps be decried on the score of
misrepresenting nature in the most natural way possible, yet teaches a
special lesson by the increased care n