14 



ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VI. — General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The number of visitors to the Museum in the year 1898 

 is the highest on record since the year 1883, amounting to a 

 total of 612,275, as against 586,437 in 1897. The visitors on 

 Sunday afternoons numbered 41,858, as against 37,594 in 

 1897. 



The total number of visits of students to the Reading Room 

 during the year was 190,886, a slight increase on that of the 

 previous year, which was 188,628. The daily average was 

 627, as against 624 in 1897. 



The average numbers of persons in the room, counted at 

 certain hours in the afternoon, were : — 



4 p.m. 



5 P.M. 



6 P.M. 



6.30 P.M. 



7 P.M. 



7.30 P.M. 



358 



262 



175 



112 



106 



78 



The number of volumes, &;c. supplied to readers in the 

 year was 1,397,145 as against 1,419,159 in 1897. 



There has been a marked increase in the total number of 

 visits of students to the several Departments other than the 

 Reading Room, amounting to 48,214 as against 40,976 in 1897. 

 This increase is partly to be attributed to the extension of 

 Students' Rooms. 



The new building commenced last year for the accommoda- 

 tion of the bookbinders has been completed, and the book- 

 binding staff has been transferred thither. The basement 

 rooms of the Museum which have thus been vacated are being- 

 fitted for storage of newspapers. 



Among the most important acquisitions of the year may 

 be noticed a further series of Egyptian antiquities and a 

 large number of Babylonian inscribed tablets of a remote 

 age. Among the additions to the Department of Greek and 

 Roman Antiquities are a golden diadem of Greek workman- 

 ship of the third century B.C., and other objects from the 

 Tyszkiewicz collection. To the Libraiy have been added 

 three works printed by Caxton, viz. : the " Parvus et magnus 

 Chato," the " De curia Sapientiae," and the '' Tribulacyon "; 

 and 10 rare books printed by Wynkyn de Worde. And a 

 most important donation to the Museum is the remarkable 

 series of bronze castings from Benin, presented by the 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and now incorporated 

 with the Ethnographical collections. 



