THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY. 



1. GENERAL SKETCH. 



The collection of fossils was originally assigned to the com- 

 prehensive Department of Natural History, which remained 

 undivided until 1837, when Mr. Charles Konig, who had been 

 Keeper since 1813, was relieved of the care of Zoology and 

 Botany, and became Keeper of the newly-formed Department of 

 Geology and Mineralogy. He had already displayed a predilec- 

 tion for organic remains, having published an account of the 

 fossil human skeleton from Guadaloupe in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1814, and an illustrated work on some of the 

 fossils in the British Museum under the title " Icones Fossilium 

 Sectiles " (London, 1820). Mr. Konig was succeeded as Keeper 

 by Mr. George Robert Waterhouse in 1851 ; and the Depart- 

 ment gained additional strength by the appointment of Professor 

 (afterwards Sir Richard) Owen as Superintendent of the Natural 

 History Departments in 1856. With the help of Dr. Samuel P. 

 Woodward, who had been Assistant since 1848, and Mr. William 

 Davies, who had been an Attendant in the Museum since 1843, 

 the collection of fossils and minerals had now become so 

 important, that in 1857 the Department was further sub-divided 

 into those of Geology and Mineralogy, Mr. Waterhouse 

 retaining the Keepership only of the former. Immediately 

 afterwards, in 1858, Dr. Henry Woodward was appointed an 

 Assistant, and on the death of Dr. S. P. Woodward in 1865, he 

 became chiefly responsible for the arrangement of the Inverte- 

 brata, and devoted himself specially to researches on the 

 Arthropoda. Mr. William Davies was occupied with the 

 arrangement of the Vertebrata, working chiefly in association 

 with Professor Owen, and in 1875 he was promoted to the rank 

 of Assistant. On the retirement of Mr. Waterhouse in 1880, 

 Dr. Henry Woodward became Keeper of the Department of 

 Geology ; and the removal of the collection to the new Natural 



