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THE DEPARTMENT OF MINERALS. 



1. GENERAL SKETCH. 

 1753-1807. 



When the British Museum, established in 1753, was first 

 opened for study and inspection on January 15, 1759, the 

 collections had been arranged in thirty -eight rooms of Montagu 

 House, Bloomsbury. The income from the invested funds of the 

 Trust being small (900 a year) and quite insufficient for the 

 provision of a large staff of warders, it was long impossible to 

 give to the public, indiscriminately, free access to the rooms 

 containing objects of great intrinsic value ; admission of the 

 public was therefore by ticket, and visitors were escorted through 

 the Museum in parties of fifteen at a time, not more than 

 ten minutes being allowed for the inspection of the contents of 

 any room. As only a small number of visitors (120) could be 

 thus escorted through the Museum in a single day, previous 

 application for tickets was necessary, and the applicant had 

 then to wait some time, possibly weeks, until informed that the 

 turn for admission had arrived. 



Nor did the funds of the Trust allow of the provision of 

 a large literary and scientific staff; only two officers could be 

 provided to take care of the whole of the Natural History 

 specimens, Animals, Plants and Minerals ; for a long time these 

 officers could be remunerated only at an extremely small rate, and 

 cheir attendance was therefore required for only two hours a day 

 on alternate days. Until the year 1807, all the officers of the 

 Natural History Department had been zoologists or botanists, 

 who gave no special attention to the study of minerals. 



It thus came about that, until the end of the 18th century, 

 the development and arrangement of the Mineral Collection 

 made virtually no progress ; the general collection was incomplete, 

 preserved in closed cabinets, and classified according to a system 

 which became out of date ; the only exhibited specimens were the 

 large ones placed on the tops of the cabinets, and some selected 



