Minerals. 345 



Recent Animals, which were assigned to special departments 

 of Botany and Zoology respectively, he retained till his death 

 in 1851 the keepership of not only the Minerals but also the 

 Palseontological specimens. 



During his long term of office, there were great changes as 

 regards both the Mineral Collection in particular and the British 

 Museum in general. In the first place, the acquisition, in the 

 year 1810, of the fine mineral collection which had been brought 

 together by the Et. Hon. Charles Greville, raised the Museum 

 collection to the first rank among the collections of the world. 

 In the second place, satisfactory arrangements having been made 

 with respect to the safeguarding of the various collections in 

 the Museum, it became possible in 1811 to grant to the general 

 public free access to the rooms on four days of the week, and to 

 dispense with tickets of admission. 



The arrangement of the minerals in glazed table-cases instead 

 of closed cabinets now became very desirable, and the saloon of 

 Montagu House, a large room, was placed by the Trustees at the 

 service of Mr. Konig for this purpose. In the course of the next 

 four years (181115), the necessary table-cases were provided and 

 the minerals were arranged for exhibition ; Mr. Konig adopted 

 for their arrangement an independent modification of the 

 Wernerian system of classification then in vogue. The table- 

 cases were twenty-four in number and one-fourth the size of the 

 largest in the present mineral gallery; the number of drawers 

 had been increased to 640. In the immediately succeeding 

 years (1816-23), the collection was further increased by the 

 purchase of the Beroldingen, Moll and Monticelli collections, 

 and also by numerous timely purchases of isolated specimens. 



When the present building at Bloomsbury was erected in 

 place of Montagu House to contain the large and growing 

 collections of the British Museum, the minerals were at first 

 arranged (1830-32) in the "Long Room" of the eastern wing; 

 Mr. Konig took the opportunity of this change of position to 

 re-classify the collection once more, and this time adopted the 

 improved chemical scheme which had been proposed in 1824 by 

 Prof. Berzelius. At the same time he dispersed the still very 

 incomplete set of British minerals which he had begun to isolate 

 from the general collection as early as the year 1816: his later 

 experience had led him to the conclusion that it is on the whole 

 more advantageous to have only a single systematic collection ; 

 for each mineral species the British are then in close proximity to 



