1 84 SCHOOL OF MINES AND MUSEUM CHAP, vi 



training. Other countries had long had their schools 

 of mines, yet Britain, with its enormous mineral 

 wealth, then yielding twenty-four millions of pounds 

 annually, had never possessed such an establish- 

 ment. It was known that vast sums of money had 

 been wasted in fruitless search for minerals, where a 

 knowledge of geology would have shown that such 

 minerals did not exist. It was admitted that science, 

 if consulted in such cases, could direct the search for 

 minerals in new localities, and aid in the proper and 

 economical working of those already known. Many 

 representations had been made to the ruling authori- 

 ties of the country, urging the great need of scientific 

 instruction in all branches of science capable of 

 assisting in the development of the mineral industries 

 of Britain. But it was not until the early summer of 

 1851 that the idea was finally launched into practical 

 accomplishment. 



The claims of De la Beche as the originator and 

 the life and spirit of this comprehensive scheme were 

 never more forcibly urged than by Murchison when, 

 four years later, the Geological Society awarded its 

 Wollaston Medal to the Director-General of the 

 Geological Survey. ' Then arose,' he said, 'and very 

 much after the design of the accomplished Director 

 himself, that well-adapted edifice in Jermyn Street, 

 which, to the imperishable credit of its author, stands 

 forth as the first palace ever raised from the ground in 

 Britain which is entirely devoted to the advancement 

 of science! . . . It is our bounden duty [as members of 

 the Geological Society] to cleave closely to our off- 

 spring, Her Majesty's Geological Museum nay 

 more, to use our most strenuous endeavours to have it 

 maintained by the British Government in that lofty posi- 



