GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE MUSEUM. 15 



Reductions of staff have continued throughout the year, and no 

 man has been held back from volunteering for military duty unless 

 his services were essential for the maintenance of the work of the 

 Museum. At the end of the year 99 members of the staff at 

 Bloomsbury and 52 at the Natural History Museum had gone on 

 military service, 38 at Bloomsbury and 12 at the Natural History 

 Museum had been attested under the Derby scheme, and 20 at 

 Bloomsbury and 13 at the Natural History Museum had been 

 rejected as medically unlit. 



The suspension of the purchase-grant (with the exception of a 

 sum devoted to the purchase of foreign books and periodicals for the 

 Library) has greatly affected the accessions, though the full falling 

 off will not be visible until the next year, since the suspension did 

 not come into effect until April, 1915, and several outstanding 

 purchases were completed by means of the reserve accumulated in 

 times of peace. The number of separate objects incorporated in the 

 collections of the several Departments during the year 1915 is as 

 follows : — 



Printed Books : 



Books and Pamphlets - - - - - 26,351 



Serials and Parts of Volumes - - - - 61,538 



Maps and Atlases ------ 1,942 



Music -------- 10,720 



Newspapers (single numbers) _ . - - 278,924 



Miscellaneous ------- 5,431 



Manuscripts and Seals ------ 2,650 



Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts - - 2,041 



Prints and Drawings ------ 3,819 



(Oriental) - - - - 1,138 



Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities - _ - 88 



Greek and Roman Antiquities _ _ _ - gg 



British and Mediaeval Antiquities - - - - 1,322 



Coins and Medals - - - - - - 3,655 



Total ----- 399,685 



The principal acquisitions will be found indicated in the 

 Departmental reports which follow, though these reports are given 

 on a less extensive scale than usual, in the interests of economy. 

 Special recognition is due to the friends of the Museum whose 

 liberality has, in several instances, enabled the Trustees to take 

 advantage of opportunities which otherwise would have been missed 

 through the suspension of the purchase grant. Five collections of 

 considerable importance have been acquired in the course of the 

 year, namely the Sale bequest of water colour drawings (notable for 

 its fine examples of David Cox, but very comprehensive in other 

 directions also) ; a selection from the Ransom collection of British 

 and other antiquities, in which the most conspicuous single object is 

 the remarkable 12th cent, bronze bowl, engraved with scenes from 

 the life of St. Thomas : the Whitcombe Greene collection of 



