BRITISH MUSECM, THE. 



BRITISH MUSEUM, THE. 



uso, m a manner to mace i 



Then have bean acquired at different times, and in different 

 eh H would take Ion* to specify ; but it may at least be 

 i that in 1S53. the Museum obtained the collection of 



at prannt occupy, of bring among the fint in UM world, both for 

 extent and accurate sdentiAo arrangement. To take the department 

 of entomology alone, it will be found that there are at promt, at the 

 lowert computation, upward* of a million of specimens, all classified 

 and labelled, in a manner to make them at onc available to the 

 Indent. 

 way* which 



mentioned that in 18*8, 

 Britiah ineeota *^~g*rg to the late Mr. Jaroee Francis Stephen*, one 

 unrivalled in extent, amounting to 88,000 epecimena, for the small 

 urn of 4UOt And mine* that time it ha* purchased the collections of 

 Culeoptora, formed by Messrs. Markel and Braasche, in order to have a 

 JbrajiieM collection to compare with the British. The collection of shells 

 in the Museum is very extensive, and would eclipse any yet known, bad 

 I >r ( iray recommendation been complied with by the Treasury, for the 

 purchase of Mr. Cuming** collection, offered to the Museum a few years 

 ago fur the sum of 6SOO/. It needs only further to be stated, that the 

 ollections generally have been much augmented by specimens 

 from the commanders of the several exploring expeditions, 

 a* those of the Krrhus and Terror, Samarang, Rattlesnake, Beagle, Ac. 



The additions made during the past year (1858), amount to as many 

 a* 42.691 specimens, of which there are 6,180 belonging to the class 

 crteiraaa, 7,818 to the malliaca and radiata, and 28,699 to the annu- 

 lata. Of these, a collection of mammalia, birds, reptiles, fish, shells, 

 Crustacea, and insect*, formed by K. M. Rayner, Esq., Surgeon, R.N., 

 during the voyage of H.M.S. Herald, in the Fiji group, and other 

 islands of the Pacific, was presented by the Lords of the Admiralty ; 

 and a collection of mammalia, birds, reptiles, and their skeletons, as 

 also a series of human skulls from Nepaul, presented by the late 

 resident, B. H. Hodgson, Esq. (See ' Parliamentary Returns, June 1859.) 



The method of exhibition to the public, according to the last 

 published ' Guide to the Exhibition Rooms of the Britiah Museum,' 

 is a* follows : " The collection of animals is contained in three 

 galleries, and, for the convenience of exhibition, is arranged in two 

 erica. The beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, are exhibited in the wall 

 cum The hard parts of the radiated, molluscous, and annulose 

 animals (as shells, corals, sea-eggs, starfish, Crustacea), and insects, and 

 the eggs of birds, are arranged in a series in the table cases of the 



several PC 



" The names and numbers of the rooms are placed over the door- 

 ways in each apartment, and the numbers of the cases over the glass 

 frame*. 



" The specimens are labelled with the scientific name, the English 

 name when they have one, the country whence they come, and, when 

 they have been presented, with the name of the donor. 



" The general collection of mammalia, or beasts which suckle their 

 young, is arranged in three rooms, the hoofed beasts (itiw/wtoa) being 

 contained in the central saloon and southern zoological gallery, and the 

 beauts with cUws (tmifnirulala) in the mammalia saloon." 



The insects and Crustacea, with the exception of those exhibited in 

 the table-cases in the northern zoological gallery, are for the most part 

 preserved in cabinets in a room on the basement floor, in the north-west 

 angle of the building, and may be seen by persons wishing to consult 

 them for purposes of study, every Tuesday and Thursday on application 

 to the keeper. 



The collection of Paltemtolnyy and Mintralnyy in the British 

 Museum have also progressed in a ratio quite equal to that of zoology. 

 The first-named of these sciences, which scarcely had an existence 

 when the Muaeum was founded, is now admirably illustrated by the 

 numerous specimens of organic remains acquired during the last 

 thirty years. Before mentioning these, however, it should be stated 

 that two rather notable acquisitions were made at an early period ; 

 namely, of a collection of London clay fossils, from Hampshire, found 

 and described by SoUnder, and presented to the Museum, in 1766, by 

 Gustavus Brander, Esq., at that time one of the trustees ; and the 

 collection, known by the name of the ' Beroldingen Fossils,' acquired 

 by purchase in 1816. In 1889, the collection was much enlarged by 

 the purchase of Dr. Mantell's celebrated museum ; and in 1835 and 

 1840, by those of Mr. Thomas Hawkins, containing some of the finest 

 specimens of ichthyosauri and pleaiosauri ever discovered. Numerous 

 other additions have since been made ; among which must be specified 

 a remarkable collection of fossil remains of birds discovered in New 

 Zealand by Mr. Walter Mantel), and sold to the Museum by his 

 "These bird remains are referred by Professor Owen to 

 "^^.y^r- ' nd md< * d * dutinct Rene of birds, some of which 

 are st.ll living m New Zealand, whilst other* are, most probably, 

 extinct. Amongst the living species may be noticed the AWomi. 

 * ,a very large species of the rail family. The first indi.-ation 

 this bird was given by some fragments of the skull found with 



w "*:?? b , irtl * in " II P prficUI deposits of New Zealand by 



I Tu 1Ul> j! U I m J he mirfdle U>Und "' New Z ~ UDd ' "d theapeoimen 

 which he obtained is now deposited in the Mueeum. TheVeater 

 portion of the bones, as determined by Professor Owen, belong to a 

 genus of birds to which the professor ha* applied the name of 

 JHnanu." An entire skeleton of one of these, the Dinornit 

 tltfkamtopiu, ha* been put together by Professor Owen, and is now 



* Gold* to Ike Exhibition BOOM, ax. 



exhibited in the same room as the huge mastodon and megatherium, 

 together with the leg* of a second species, the Dixonii yiyuHteui, 

 I. i<li must have been from ten to eleven feet high. 



Among the more recent accessions may be mentioned the Croixet 

 collection of mammalia from Auvergne, acquired in 1848 ; the Dixon 

 collection of chalk and tertiary fossils from the south of England in 

 1851 ; the Des Hayes collection of older and middle tertiary ftiesils, 

 from Bordeaux, and the Paris basin, acquired in 1854 ; Maji r 

 Cant ley's collection of fossil bones from the Himalayas; the Tesaun 

 collection of oolites from Normandy, in 1857; and the Bruckmann 

 collection of fossil plants from (Kningen, in 1858. The fmwils 

 and minerals together occupy a long gallery called the ' North 

 Gallery,' in the upper story of the building, divided into room* 

 numbered I. to VI. The floor of the gallery is occupied by table- 

 cases, which in the rooms I. to IV. contain the collection of minerals; 

 and in rooms V. and VI. are devoted to the fossil remains of inver- 

 tebrate animals. The wall-cases throughout the gallery are occupied 

 by fossils. The fossil remains are arranged partly in zoological order 

 and partly in geological sequence." They comprise plants, fishes, 

 reptiles, mammalia, insects, and Crustacea. These are all arranged in 

 the most approved scientific order, and the collection altogether is, 

 without exception, at present the finest in the world. The unscientific 

 visitor will doubtless admire most the remains of the Edentata, quad- 

 rupeds without front teeth, an the megatherium ; and the Packydtr- 

 mntii, or thick-skinned herbivorous quadrupeds, such as the elephants 

 and mastodons, of which there are some very grand specimens in 

 room VI. Another object of attraction in this room, besides the 

 /Hmirnis, above mentioned, is the fossil human skeleton brought from 

 Guadaloupe by Sir Alexander Cochrane, and presented to the Museum 

 by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. This was found 

 imbedded in the solid limestone rock, and much discussion has arisen 

 as to its antiquity, but the most probable conjecture is that it is not 

 more than a few centuries old. 



The specimens of Minrralt in Sir Hans Sloane's Museum were 

 collected at a period when the science of mineralogy was but little 

 studied. Most of them had been chosen for him by persons of little. 

 skill, or had been intended to elucidate some system which had 

 become obsolete. For a long time it made little progress, but in 1797, 

 a small collection, made on the north-west coast of America by Mr. 

 Menzies, who accompanied Capt. Vancouver as a naturalist, wax pre- 

 sented to the Museum by George III. This collection contained little 

 that was particularly curious, except that it supplied a kind of mine- 

 ralogical history of an extensive but little explored coast. A system- 

 atic collection of minerals for the benefit of persons pursuing the study 

 of mineralogy was not attempted by the trustees till 1799, when they 

 supplied the deficiency of that branch of their institution by acquiring, 

 at the price of 7001., a well-chosen collection of minerals of every 

 class, consisting of 7000 specimens, which had been made by Charles 

 Hatchett, Esq., during his travels in various parts of Europe. All that 

 was valuable of the Sloanean collection was incorporated with this 

 ample accession, and with the addition of what the Rev. C. M. Crache- 

 rode's bequest afterwards supplied, formed, even before the addition 

 of the Greville minerals, a copious and useful mineralogical collection. 

 In 1810 an opportunity presented itself of acquiring the collection of 

 minerals formed by CoL Greville, which were purchased by vote of 

 parliament for 13,727/. : and to these collections George IV. added a 

 large and splendid collection of minerals from the liar/. Mountains 

 formerly preserved in the Observatory at Richmond. 



Two of the greatest rarities of the mineralogical collection are the 

 Bcnlptured tortoise in the centre of the gallery, wrought in Nephritic 

 stone, and found on the banks of the Jumna, near Allahabad, in 

 Hindustan; and a large specimen of meteoric cellular native ir..n 

 from the province of Atacama, in Peru. There are, however, other 

 specimens of the meteoric iron, some of which have been found in 

 our own country. There are also various beautiful specimens of 

 copper, gold, and silver. " The Siberian and Australian gold regions 

 are well represented, and in particular, the produce of the Victoria 

 gld district of Australia is exemplified in the Latrobe nugget, a mass 

 of cryitaUitcd gold, of great purity ami beauty, weighing nearly twenty- 

 four ounce*." The various other minerals, including what are com- 

 monly called finvioat itmet, are also fitly represented in the Museum 

 collection of mineralogy, which is continually receiving accessions, 

 either by donation or purchase. 



The system hitherto adopted for its arrangement, with occasional 

 alight deviation, is that of Professor Berzelius, founded upon the electro- 

 chemical theory and the doctrine .of definite proportions as developed 

 by him in a memoir read before the Royal Academy of Sciences at 

 Stockholm in 1824. The detail of the arrangement is supplied by 

 the running titles on the outsides of the glass cases, and by the labels 

 within them. There being, however, good reason to suppose that the 

 existing classification is not fully in accordance with the present 

 advanced state of the science, a re-arrangement of the whole collection 

 is contemplated. " But," as stated iiy the keeper in the parliamentary 

 return just issued (June, 18511), " for such an arrangement to be com- 

 plete, the collection will need the addition of a considerable nunil.n- of 

 mineral*, either inadequately represented now or not represented at 

 all. The exact and definitive arrangement of a large number of minerals 

 will be impracticable until the means are furnished to the department 



