190 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Department of Mineralogy. 



I. — Arrangement. 



Sixteen new cubes, each containing five drawers, have been 

 fitted beneath the table-cases in the Gallery ; and many of 

 these drawers have been utilised for the reception of reserve 

 specimens of zeolites and calcites. 



A series of specimens to illustrate the minerals mentioned 

 in the Bible has been selected from the General Collection, and 

 arranged and labelled in a case in the Central Hall. 



The Collections, comprising some 17,000 specimens, of 

 foreign rocks and minerals recently presented by the Geological 

 Society of London, have been arranged, and a catalogue in 

 which details of each Collection are entered on separate slips 

 has been prepared. The work of separating duplicates and of 

 selecting specimens of minerals and rocks suitable for a 

 students-series is in progress. 



Seventy-nine boxes or parcels of mineral specimens have 

 been received, unpacked, and examined ; seventy-three boxes 

 or parcels have been packed and despatched. 



II. — Registration, Indexing, and Cataloguing. 



All the specimens acquired during the year, with the 

 exception of the large series of foreign rocks received from the 

 Geological Society, have been registered, numbered, labelled, 

 and incorporated with the Collection. 



The preparation of the slip-catalogues of the mineral- 

 specimens in the Collection, species by species, and of permanent 

 labels giving all available information for each specimen, has 

 now been completed for the Elements, Arsenides, Sulphides and 

 Sulphur-salts (Table Cases 1-8). In the course of this work 

 permanent labels have been written, checked and placed in the 

 Collection with the specimens of copper-pyrites, tetrahedrite, 

 pyrargyrite, etc., to the end of the Sulphur-salts ; faded 

 register-numbers have been re-written ; unsightly labels have 

 been transferred to the back of specimens, and 1,693 specimens 

 acquired before 1837 or with the Allan-Greg Collection in 1860, 

 have been entered in the General Register. The registration of 

 specimens hitherto referred to only in old Catalogues has been 

 completed for the Haloid Division and the Oxide Division as 

 far as Corundum inclusive. In the Division of the Silicates 

 also, a slip list has been made of all specimens belonging to the 

 species pyroxene, amphiboie, apophyllite, okenite, gyrolite, 

 pectolite, talc, meerschaum, hemimorphite and chrysocolla,. 

 which have not been entered in the General Register, 



The preparation of a slip-catalogue of the topographical 

 rock collections has been begun. 



