mSTOEICAL COLLECTIONS. 



9 



collecta, et in Musaeo Britannico deposita a Gustavo Gallery XI. 

 Brander," London, 1766. The specimens retain the original 

 names given by Solander, underneath which are the names 

 now in general use. Those figured in the book are dis- 

 tinguished by a disc of green paper, as previously explained 

 (p. 3). 



The next collection is that containing many of the speci- Table-ease 

 mens figured in the Icones fossilium sectiles " (1820, 1825), 

 an illustrated work on miscellaneous fossils in the British 

 Museum, prepared by Carl D. E. Koenig (1774-1851), who 

 was the first keeper of the Mineralogical and Geological 

 Department, after its separation from the general natural 

 history collections in 1825. 



Following this is a collection of fossils from the Table-cases 

 Carboniferous Limestone of BoUand, formed by William 

 Gilbertson of Preston. This owes its great scientific 

 importance to the fact that the specimens in it were 

 described and figured by Professor John Phillips in 

 Volume II. of his " Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire " 

 (1836). Thus this collection is particularly rich in the 

 identical specimens upon which the various species were 

 originally based, in other words, the type-specimens of the 

 species ; and it acquires additional importance from the fact 

 that Phillips' own collection was stolen from him on his 

 arrival in London by thieves, who are said to have thrown it 

 into the Thames in their disgust at finding the booty was of 

 no value to them. The Gilbertson Collection was purchased 

 by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1841, but was for 

 many years kept in the Zoological Department. 



The next collection, from which only a selection is Table-cases 

 exhibited, was formed by a naturalist who devoted his entire 

 life to the study and illustration of a single class of 

 organisms, namely, the Bracliiopoda. This was Thomas 

 Davidson (1817-1885), whose great monograph on the 

 British fossil Brachiopoda was published by the Palaeonto- 

 graphical Society between 1850 and 1886. The collection 

 contains many of the specimens therein described, as well as 

 an excellent series from foreign localities ; it also includes 

 the specimens described in Davidson's Monograph of recent 

 Brachiopoda (Trans. Linnean Soc. 1886-1887). The entire 

 collection of 22,831 specimens was bequeathed by him to the 

 Trustees of the British Museum and handed over by his son, 

 William Davidson, Esquire, in 1886, with Davidson's original 

 drawings, and his library relating to the subject. 



