viii INTRODUCTION. 



The sections were 



1. Mechanics (including pure and applied mathe- 



matics). 



2. Physics. 



3. Chemistry (including metallurgy). 



4. Geology, Mineralogy, and Geography. 



5. Biology. 



The Committees for the several sections are given at 

 page xxi. 



The question of classification, having been carefully con- 

 sidered at numerous meetings of these Sub-Committees, was 

 brought before the General Committee on the 12th May, and 

 the several schemes were referred to a special Sub-Com- 

 mittee, formed of three members from each sectional Sub- 

 Committee. It was also decided to postpone the Exhibition, 

 which it was originally intended to open in June 1875, to 

 March 1876. The large number of objects sent from abroad, 

 and the late period of their arrival, have necessitated a 

 further postponement of the opening to May 1876. 



The Sub-Committee appointed to revise and report on 

 the classification of the Collection after three meetings, 

 under the chairmanship of the President of the Royal 

 Society, submitted a scheme of classification to the General 

 Committee on June 22nd. After having been carefully 

 considered, it was, with some slight alterations, approved, 

 and is given at page xv. This programme was imme- 

 diately issued, and the classification into sections is that 

 adopted for the catalogue and exhibition, though the nature 

 of the Galleries has necessitated some alteration in the order 

 of the sections. 



It had been the intention from the first to give the Loan 

 Collection an international character, so as to afford men of 

 science and those interested in education an opportunity of 

 seeing what was being done by other countries than their 

 own in the production of apparatus, both for research and 

 for instruction an opportunity which it was hoped would 

 be of advantage also to the makers of instruments. As soon, 

 therefore, as the programme had been definitely settled, steps 

 were taken to interest foreign countries in the Exhibition ; 

 and it was determined to obtain the co-operation of men of 

 science on the Continent, who, while acting as members of 



