422 ■ JReports and Proceeding c — Geologists' Assoeiatiot). 



Visit of the Geologists' Association to the Histokical and- 

 Type Collections in the Geological Department, British 

 Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Eoad, S.W. 



^N Saturday afternoon, the 12th of March, 1887, the Members of 

 the Association, accompanied by their President, F. W. Eudler, 

 Esq., F.G.S., their Secretaries Dr. J, Fonlerton, F.G.S., and B. B. 

 Woodward, Esq., F.G.S., assembled in the Central Hall of the 

 Natural History Museum, Cromwell Eoad, whence they proceeded, 

 under the guidance of Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., the Keeper of 

 the Department of Geology, to visit a newly-opened Gallery (No. 11), 

 in which had been arranged, in seventeen cases, a series of nine 

 Collections of historical and pal^ontological interest, bearing upon 

 the early history of the British Museum and the study of Geology 

 and Palseontology in this country. Dr. Woodward addressed the 

 members as follows : — 



Taking the exhibition cases in clironoJogical order, the earliest is- 

 the "Sloane Collection." This is the most ancient portion of the 

 Geological Collection, having formed a part of the Museum of Sir 

 Hans Sloane, Bart., F.E.S., acquired by purchase for the Nation in 1753. 



The geological specimens are stated to have consisted "in what 

 by way of distinction are called extraneous fossils, comprehending 

 petrified bodies, as Trees or parts of them ; Herbaceous plants ;. 

 Animal substances," etc., and reported to be " the most extensive 

 and most curious that ever was seen of its kind." Until 1857 the 

 Fossils and Minerals formed one collection, so that a large part of the 

 " Sloane Collection " consisted probably of mineral bodies and not 

 organic, but in any case only about 100 specimens of invertebrate ^ 

 fossils can now be identified with certainty as forming part of the 

 original Sloane Museum. Each specimen in the Sloane Collection 

 had originally a number attached to it, corresponding to a carefully 

 prepared Manuscript Catalogue, still preserved, which contains many 

 curious entries concerning the various objects in the Museum. In 

 the course of more than 130 years, many of these numbers have 

 been detached from the objects or obliterated by cleaning. But as 

 all fossils at this early date were looked upon merely as curiosities, 

 but little attention was paid to the formation or locality whence they 

 were derived. Historically, the collection has immense interest to 

 us, marking the rapid strides which the science of Geology has made 

 of late years, especially as regards its more careful and systematic 

 methods of stud}'. 



The next Collection in chronological order is the " Brander Col- 

 lection," and is the earliest one in which types of named and described 

 species have been preserved. 



This Collection was formed by Gustavus Brander, F.E.S., F.S.A.,. 

 in the earlier half of the last century, and an account of the same, 

 with eight quarto plates, was published in 1766, entitled, " Fossilia 



^ And some few Tertebrate fossils which have not been separated from the General 

 Collection. 



