THE ROYAL SOCIETY AND THE STATE 



especially of the valuable zoological specimens frequently 

 H u Jsuu*5 Bay Company from their territories, 



was presented by the Society to the nation, a not unworthy 

 acknowledgment, on the Society's part, of the Govern- 

 ment's gift of apartments. This collection has not been 

 kept separate, but is now hopelessly dispersed among the 

 thousands of specimens which crowd the halls of the 

 British Museum. Some specimens, however, in com- 

 parative anatomy, preserved in the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons, are duly entered in the catalogue 

 as having belonged originally to the Royal Society's 

 Museum. 



Besides the grant of apartments in Somerset House, 

 and subsequently in Burlington House, the Society has 

 received no pecuniary support from Government, nor 

 assistance of any kind, with one exception to be mentioned 

 farther on, beyond the grant by Charles n., shortly after 

 its incorporation, of Chelsea College and the lands apper- 

 taining to it ; a gift which proved much less valuable than 

 appeared from the parchments. Claimants at once came 

 forward for portions of the estate, and the property was 

 in so unsettled a state as to title, and so much out of 

 repair, that after much money had been spent on repairing 

 the College, and great exertions made in vain to procure 

 a tenant, the President was authorised to sell the estate 

 to the King for the sum of 1300 ; the Council voting 

 their thanks to him for " thus disposing of a property 



which was a source of continual annoyance and trouble 

 E 65 



