MUSEUM REPORT. CXX1X 
collection of such rock-specimens, not exceeding the number above 
mentioned, might be easily made, to the great advantage of beginners 
im geology, and might be comprised within a very moderate tompass. 
To this collection might be appended with great propriety several 
small suites of specimens (which at’ present exist) illustrative of struc- 
ture, cleavage, metamorphic action, the gradual passage of one mineral 
substance into another, &c. &c. (see Museum Report for 1842). 
Size of a proposed Chest or Locker, necessary for containing an 
Elementary Collection of Rock Specimens. 
Length, 3 feet. Width, 14. Height, 14. 
If the chest be divided into five tiers, each containing 72 trays or 
stands, it will furnish accommodation for about 360 specimens, of the 
average size of three inches square. 
Collection of Simple Minerals. 
This collection is located in the Library. It is founded on a reso- 
lution of Council dated May 28th, 1813. In 1815 it is stated to be 
so incomplete as scarcely to deserve the name of a collection, yet it is 
referred to in the Reports of 1815, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1821, 1822, 
1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1835, 1838, 1842, since which period 
it seems to have fallen into neglect. This is the more extraordinary, 
because immediately previous to its decline it appears to have been a 
favourite with the Society. The Report informs us that the number 
of drawers appropriated to this department had been increased since 
the last anniversary from sixty to seventy-four, but that such state- 
ment by no means conveys an adequate idea of the real extension of 
the collection, which might be estimated to have increased nearly 
one-third. Few additions have been made to it of late years, and it 
is but little consulted. 
The simple minerals occupy at present seventy-four drawers ; if it 
were thought desirable to increase the number, it were easy to do so. 
If the Council were to express a desire to extend the collection, valu- 
able donations would flow in immediately ; still those who feel an in- 
terest in this branch of science must always have better opportunities 
of pursuing it at the British Museum than ever could be furnished to 
them at the Geological Society. 
The cabinet of simple minerals was arranged in the first instance 
after Brongniart ; afterwards, in 1831, after Phillips: the arrangement 
was revised and improved in 1841. The (best?) English edition of 
Phillips’s work was edited by Mr. Allan of Edinburgh ; but there is a 
later and better one by Alger published in America. Dana has pub- 
lished also in that country a new and, it is said, an original system. 
The most recent and original system of any extent published in Europe 
is that of Glocker (Synopsis, large 8vo, Halze, 1847): he, like so many 
of his predecessors, considers it necessary to have a nomenclature of his 
own. In 1830 Mr. Brooke published in the ‘ Encyclopedia Metro- 
politana’ one. of the most comprehensive treatises that has appeared. 
Breithaupt, Cleaveland, Jameson, Haidinger, Hauy, Mohs, Naumann, 
