310 Geology. 



Mantell (GIDEON ALGERNON) [1790-1852] 



For several years a medical practitioner at Lewes, Sussex, Mantell 

 collected fossils from the local chalk-pits. His geological researches also 

 extended to the sandstones and clays of the Sussex Weald, in which he 

 was the first discoverer of Dinosauria, Crocodilia, fishes, and plants. He 

 published "The Fossils of the South Downs" (1822), besides more 

 popular works, among which " Petrifactions and their Teachings ; or, a 

 Handbook to the Gallery of Organic Remains in the British Museum " is 

 of particular interest to a student of the Museum's history. lu 1835 he 

 removed to Brighton, and his collection, containing more than 20,000 

 specimens, was there arranged for public exhibition by the Sussex 

 Scientific Institution as the Mantellian Museum, with G. F. Richardson 

 as curator, in the hopes that it would form the basis of a County Museum. 

 Each specimen bore a small yellow oval label numbered in ink to 

 correspond with a MS. Catalogue prepared by himself. In 1817, he 

 presented to the British Museum a few specimens to illustrate his 

 forthcoming first work; and, in 1825, he added a tooth of the newly- 

 discovered Jguanodon. In 1839, disappointed that the municipality of 

 Brighton would not acquire his collection, he sold the whole of it to the 

 British Museum at a considerable loss. It was especially valuable as 

 containing not only the Wealden Reptilia, the Maidstone Greensand 

 Iguanodon, and other fossils described in detail by Mantell himself, but 

 also Chalk and Wealden Fishes described by Agassiz in his " Recherches 

 sur les Poissons Fossiles " ; it also included various specimens bought at 

 the sale of James Parkinson's collection (q.v.), but not all of these can 

 now be identified. In later years, when settled in Chester Square, 

 Pimlico, Dr. Mantell continued to collect Dinosaurian remains from the 

 Weald, and other fossils. After his death a selection from this second 

 collection, comj 

 was purchased by the British Museum in 1853. 



Mantell (The Hon. WALTER BALDOCK DURRANT) [1820-1895] 

 The eldest son of Dr. G. A. Mantell left England about 1840 for New 

 Zealand, where he ultimately held important public positions. He was 

 one of the earliest and most systematic collectors of bird-bones from the 

 superficial deposits of that country. He also discovered the nearly- 

 extinct Notomis mantelU, of which his original specimens are in the 

 Department of Zoology. A few bones of Dinornithidfe sent by him to 

 Dr. G. A. Mantell, and described by the latter (Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc., 1848), were purchased by the Museum in 1848. A large collection, 

 obtained by Mantell chiefly from the old cooking-places of the Maories, 

 was purchased in 1856. 



Marsh (OTHXIEL CHARLES) 



Presented casts of several remarkable American fossil Yertebrata 

 described in his works, including Eosaurus acadiamts (1862), Cretaceous 

 toothed Birds (1881), Khamphorhynchus pJiyUurus (1883), Dinocerata 

 (1885), a skeleton of Dinoceras mirabile (1888), and a skull and mandible 

 of Srontops robustus (1889). He also presented a specimen of the 

 Trilobite, Triarthrus becki, with appendages, in 1894, and Brachiospongia 

 from the Ordovician of Kentucky, in 1895. 



Marsham-Townsend (Hon. ROBERT) 



Presented a valuable collection of British fossils and some Cretaceous 

 Fishes from Brazil, 1877. 



