A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



need. The money which it was expected to bring 

 was to be used to purchase some collections of curi- 

 osities and of books that had been offered the govern- 

 ment, and to provide for their future care and disposal 

 as a public trust for the benefit and use of the people. 

 The lottery brought the desired money as a matter of 

 course, for the "fool's tax" is the one form of revenue 

 that is paid without stint and without grumbling. Al- 

 most fifty thousand pounds remained in the hands 

 of the archbishop of Canterbury and his fellow-trus- 

 tees after the prizes were paid. And with this sum the 

 institution was founded which has been increasingly 

 famous ever since as the British Museum. 



The idea which had this splendid result had origi- 

 nated with Sir Hans Sloane, baronet, a highly respect- 

 ed practising physician of Chelsea, who had accumu- 

 lated a great store of curios, and who desired to see the 

 collection kept intact and made useful to the public 

 after his death. Dying in 1753, this gentleman had 

 directed in his will that the collection should be offered 

 to the government for the sum of twenty thousand 

 pounds; it had cost him fifty thousand pounds. The 

 government promptly accepted the offer as why 

 should it not, since it had at hand so easy a means of 

 raising the necessary money? It was determined to 

 supplement the collection with a library of rare books, 

 for which ten thousand pounds was to be paid to the 

 "Right Honorable Henrietta Cavendish Holies, Coun- 

 tess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer, Relict of Ed- 

 ward, Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and the Most 

 Noble Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Portland, their 

 only daughter." 



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