ACCOUNTS, SiC, OF THE BRITISH 3IUSEUM. 



(i.) List of Books of Reference in the Reading Room. — The number of alterations and 

 additions in the interleaved copies of this List, made to record the changes in the books 

 of reference by the addition of new works, and the exchange of old for new editions, 

 amounts to 309 in each of the interleaved copies, and the necessary entries have been 

 made in the Hand-Catalogue. 



III. Binding. — The number of volumes sent to be bound in the course of the year 

 amounts to 17,312; including 1,017 volumes of newspapers; and, in consequence of the 

 frequent adoption of the j^lan of binding two or more volumes in one, the number of 

 bound volumes returned is 9,071. 822 pamphlets have also been bound, and 461 

 volumes have been repaired. 



IV. Reading Room Service. — The number of volumes returned to the General 

 Library from use in the Reading Eoom, is 345,482; to the Royal Library, 11,571; 

 to the Grenville Library, 917 ; and to the presses in which books are kept from day 

 to day for the use of readers, 292,249. Adding the estimated number of volumes 

 returned to the shelves of the Reading Room, about 789,744, the whole amounts to 

 1,439,963, or about 4,931 for each of 292 days during which the room was open to the 

 public. 



The number of readers during the year has been 113,594, giving an average of 389 daily; 

 and, from the numbers above, each reader aj)pears to have consulted, on an average, 

 12 volumes per diem. The average time occupied in supplying a book to a reader has 

 been 15 minutes. 



V. Additions. — (a.) 37,426 volumes and pamphlets have been added to the Library in the 

 course of the year (including books of Music and volumes of Xewspapers), of which 5,024 

 were presented, 9,456 received in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 663 

 received under the International Copyright Treaties, and 22,283 acquired by purchase. 

 To these should be added the volumes comprising the Chinese Encyclopsedia, 5,020 in 

 number, which have been paid for, but not yet received, making the entire number of 

 volumes 42,446. 



(J.) 45,059 parts of volumes (or separate numbers of periodical publications, and of 

 works in progress) have also been added, of which 1,354 were presented, 26,826 received 

 in pursuance of the laws of English Copyright, 508 received under the International 

 Copyright Treaties, and 16,369 acquired by purchase. 



(c.) The number of sets of Newspapers published in the United Kingdom and received 

 under the provisions of the Copyright Act during the past year has been as follows, viz. : 

 277 published in London and its suburbs, 1,482 in other parts of England and Wales, 

 178 in Scotland, and 129 in Ireland. 45 volumes, and 256 numbers of Newspapers 

 belonging to 19 different sets, have been purchased ; and 1,522 numbers, belonging to 16 

 different sets, have been presented. 



{d.) 6,336 pieces of Music have been acquired, each piece complete in itself, of which 

 3,306 were received by English and 2,057 by International Copyright, and 973 purchased. 

 2,562 works of greater extent than single pieces have also been acquired, comprising 1,063 

 by English, and 486 by International Copyright, and 1,013 by purchase. 



(e.) The number of distinct works comprised in the 37,426 volumes and pamphlets, and 

 45,059 parts of volumes already mentioned, amounts, as nearly as can be ascertained, to 

 47,432. Of these, 5,983 have been presented, 14,026 acquired by English, and 2,825 by 

 International Copyright, and 24,598 by purcliase. 



10,238 articles have been received in the Department, not included in the foregoing 

 enumeration of volumes and parts of volumes, comprising Playbills, single pieces of 

 Music, Broadsides, Songs and Ballads, Parliamentary Papers, and other miscellaneous 

 items ; the addition of this number to those already given produces a total of 92,723 

 articles received in the Department. 



The number of stamps impressed on articles received is altogether 358,415. In addi- 

 tion to this, 5,452 extra stamps have been impressed on volumes of various collections 

 already in the Library for further security. 



Among the accessions of the year, the following may deserve particular notice : — 



I. The most important acquisition of the year, has been the purchase of a copy of the great 

 Chinese Encyclopaedia, known as K'in Ting Ku Kin T'u Shu Tsih Clveng, or " Com- 

 plete collection of writings and illustrations, ancient and modern, drawn up under Imperial 

 sanction." This remarkable work, to which nothing parallel exists in the literature of 

 other countries, is comprised in 5,020 volumes, and consists of a vast thesaurus, into which 

 is digested the entire mass of Chinese literature extant at the date of its publication, 

 classified under appropriate headings, and accompanied with illustrative drawings, plans, 

 and maps. It includes treatises ranging from about 1150 B.C. to about the year 1700 

 of our era ; and it is said that, with the exception of Chinese novels, every branch of the 

 national literature is fully represented in it. It was compiled in the early part of the 

 18th century by an Imperial Commission, under the orders of the Emperor Kang 

 Hi. This great Emperor, so well known to us from the accounts of the Jesuit Mis- 

 sionaries, 



