140 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Dr. Henry Woodward gave demonstrations on the Pleisto 

 cene Mammalia to visitors on 5th and 19th November, and 

 on 3rd and 29th December. 



The number of visits from students and persons who have 

 consulted the collections and the Library for purposes of 

 scientific research during the year, and who have received 

 special assistance from members of the staff of the Depart- 

 ment, was 3,771. 



Henry Woodward. 



Department of Mineralogy. 



The Staff and its Duties. 



The staff of the Mineral Department consists of the keeper, 

 three assistants, three attendants, and two boy-attendants. 

 The duties are distributed as follows : — 



Three Assistants. — To one is assigned most of the scientific 

 and executive work relating to the collection of mineral 

 species ; including the preliminary examination of specimens 

 submitted for purchase or exchange, the registration and 

 incorporation of the recently acquired specimens, the prepara- 

 tion of species-, variety-, and locality-labels, the determination 

 of the physical and geometrical characters of specimens, and 

 the preparation of a descriptive catalogue of the collection. 



To a second is assigned similar work relative to the speci- 

 mens of rocks. 



To the third is assigned the chemical analysis of both 

 minerals and rocks. 



Though a mineralogist can no longer satisfactorily attempt 

 to keep abreast of scientific knowledge and undertake scien- 

 tific work in more than one of the above three branches of 

 the subject (physical, petrological, and chemical), such a sharp 

 limitation of the work of the assistants would be contrary to 

 the interests of the Museum ; hence, as fai- as possible, it is 

 arranged that each assistant has the opportunity of acquiring 

 a general knowledge of the specimens preserved in the 

 department, and of thus becoming of more general service to 

 the public in the absence, of his colleagues. 



Three Attendants. — One is specially employed in the prepara- 

 tion of thin sections of minerals and rocks for examination 

 with the microscope ; a second is charged with the arrano-e- 



ment 



