REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 47 



Altogether there are upward of 6,300 specimens on exhibition ; over 

 800 are on hand, to be incorporated during the present year, and almost 

 daily new material swells the collection. 



In connection with the mineralogical department is the mineral ex- 

 change. A large number of mineral duplicates, upwards of 10,000, is 

 on hand, and these, having been classified and arranged in series, 

 will be distributed to institutions of learning or disposed of in exchange 

 in order to increase the main collection. A limited number of good 

 duplicates is kept on hand — deposited in drawers — to serve for foreign 

 exchange and to afford material for study, should it be required. 



Photographs of antiquities in the British Museum. — Amougthe additions 

 to the museum is a series of photographs of the most valuable contents 

 of the British Museum, systematically made and arranged with the defi- 

 nite object of showing man's gradual advance and the development of 

 civilization from pre-historic to mediaeval times. These were made by 

 S. Thompson, with the consent of the trustees of the museum, for W. 

 A. Mansell & Co., of London, as proprietors, and have in part been pre- 

 sented by them to the Institution. The series consists of nearly a thousand 

 plates and is grouped in seven parts : 



I. Pre-historic and ethnographical series. 

 II. Egyptian series. 



III. Assyrian series. 



IV. Grecian series. 



V. Etruscan and Roman series. 

 VI. Antiquities of Britain and foreign mediaeval art. 



VIT. Seals of sovereigns, corporations, &c. 



They will be placed on exhibition at the Institution in the large hall 

 as soon as the cases are prepared to receive them. These photographs 

 are a valuable contribution to the means of diffusing a knowledge of the 

 largest ethnological collection in the world, and will serve as original 

 materials for the use of the historian, scholar, and art-student. The 

 publication of a work of this magnitude has necessarily caused an enor- 

 mous outlay, and the proprietors are obliged to seek the support of men 

 of culture, for whom it has been prepared. It gives us pleasure to 

 recognize the importance to art and science of this new application of 

 photography, and to recommend it to public institutions and gentlemen 

 of fortune. It is not necessary to point out how valuable such a work 

 would be to any library or museum, particularly in a country where but 

 few can have the opportunity of seeing and still fewer that of studying 

 the originals represented. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



An immense amount of labor is every year devoted to correspondence, 

 which includes subjects relating to almost every branch of human 



