of the British Museum. 523 



of finding accommodation for the ever-growing library, but the 

 keepers of the other departments continued urgent in their demands 

 for more space ; and after much discussion of rival plans for keeping 

 the collections together and obtaining the needful extension of room 

 by acquiring the property immediately around the old Museum, or 

 for severing the collections and removing a portion to another 

 building on a fresh site, the latter course was finally decided upon. 

 In 1863 the House of Commons sanctioned the purchase of part 

 of the site of the International Exhibition of 1862, in Cromwell 

 Road, South Kensington, with a view to appropriating it to the 

 purpose of a Museum of Natural History. 



The considerations of the various plans for the new buildings 

 occupied a long period of time, Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, 

 finally obtaining for his design the approval of the Trustees in 1871. 

 The present building was commenced in 1873, and was handed over 

 to the Trustees completed, but without internal fittings, in June, 

 1880. The great labour of removing the collections to the new- 

 building was commenced, and a part of the Departments of Geology 

 and Mineralogy were opened to the public on April 18th, 1881. 



The history of the growth of the great collections in the British 

 Museum runs parallel to the growth of natural knowledge, as 

 exemplified by the establishment of the various learned Societies 

 which have been founded for its promotion. Thus, in 1756 the 

 National Museum consisted of three departments only, (1) Printed 

 Books, (2) Manuscripts, (3) Natural History ; strange to say, this 

 last department included antiquities, coins, and medals ! In 1807 the 

 last-named department was divided into the Department of Natural 

 History and Modern Curiosities and of the Department of Antiquities 

 and Coins. 



In 1827 Robert Brown was appointed Keeper of Sir Joseph 

 Banks' Botanical Collection, and by adding to this the Sloane 

 herbarium and other dried plants a separate Department of Botany 

 was formed. In 1837 the Mineralogical and Geological branch, 

 under Mr. C. Konig, Keeper, and the Zoological branch, under 

 Mr. J. G. Children, were created. The last subdivision occurred 

 in 1857, when Mineralogy and Geology were split up into two 

 departments, and the four departments so formed have remained 

 intact to the present time. 



Originally, the Royal Society, which was founded in 1660,^ 

 represented all the Natural Sciences till 1788, when the Botanists 

 seceded, with others, and formed the Linnean Society. The Geo- 

 logists made another separate Societj' in 1807, and the Astronomers 

 in 1821. The Zoological Society commenced its existence in 1826. 

 The Chemists founded a separate Society in 1841. Many others 

 might be named, as the Entomological Society founded in 1833, 

 while the Mineralogical and Malacological Societies have a still 

 more recent origin. But the swing of the pendulum of time seems 

 now changing in favour of reunion, or perhaps of reorganisation ; and 



1 The Antiquaries formed a Society iu 1572, were dissolyed in 1601, reconstituted 

 in 1717, and obtained their charter in 1751. 



