'16 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OE THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Till.— General, PROGEESS at the Museum, BloomsbUry, 



The total number of visits by the public to the Museum 

 during the year 1908 was 743,418 ; the number of visits on 

 week-days being 669,089, and on Sundays '74,324. The total 

 shows an improvement oil the numbers of the last two years, 

 the total being 646,300 in 1907, and 691,950 in 1906. But it is 

 still far behind the large numbers of 1903 to 1905. 



The total number of visits by readers to the Reading Room 

 was 231,544, giving a daily average of 761, as against a total of 

 212,997 in 1906 (a comparison with the numbers of 1907 not 

 being practicable, as the room was closed for renovation during 

 six months of that year). 



The number of visits of Students to particular Departments 

 (other than the Reading Room) in 1908 was 55,676, showing 

 scarcely any variation from the total of 55,738 in 1907. There 

 has been a decrease in the number of visitors to the Newspaper 

 Room and the Department of Oriental Printed Books and 

 Manuscripts, but, on the other hand, an increase in the number 

 of visits to the Departments of Manuscripts, Prints and 

 Drawings, Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, and in the 

 Sculpture Galleries. 



A contract for building the new boiler-house in connection 

 with the British Museum Extension was entered into during 

 the autumn, and the work is still in progress. With this exception 

 no building operations have been undertaken in connection 

 with the new wing in Montague Place. 



Fire-resisting divisional walls have been built in the roof 

 of the Western and Southern Galleries of the Museum, and 

 provision has been made for continuing the work in other 

 sections of the roof. 



An iron building for the accommodation of casts from the 

 antique, which were recently transferred from the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum, has been erected, and the arrangement of the 

 casts is in progress. 



Among the more important additions to the several Depart- 

 ments during the year, the following may be specially noticed : — 



In the Department of Printed Books 80 English books 

 printed before the year 1640 have been added to the library 

 and include works from the presses of Julian Notary, Richard 

 Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde, and Thomas Berthelet. The "Pars 

 Hiemalis '' of the York Breviary, printed by F. Regnault, of 

 Paris, in 1533, and two copies of the Salisbury Primer, the one 

 printed by T. Kerver, of Paris, in 1510, and the other by N. le 

 Roux, of Rouen, in 1537, are among the most important of these 

 books. Sixty-four Incunabula (books printed before 1501) 

 have been acquired, including the " Pars Aestivalis " of the 

 Strassburg Breviary, printed on vellum in 1478. 



