HANDBOOK TO THE MUSEUM. 
Introduction. 
The Museum of Practical Geology owes its origin to a repre- 
sentation submitted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1835, 
by Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche, the founder of the Geological 
Survey of the United Kingdom. During the progress of the 
Survey, which had been commenced a few years previously in 
the south-west of England, the officers had obtained specimens 
of minerals, rocks, and fossils, which it was clearly desirable to 
preserve. It was suggested by De la Beche that these specimens 
would form an excellent nucleus of a museum of a special 
character, designed partly to illustrate the work of the Survey 
and partly to show the application of geology to the useful 
purposes of life, and especially to exhibit the mineral resources 
of the British Isles. In 1837, Lord Duncannon, then Chief 
Commissioner of Woods and Forests, allotted apartments for 
this purpose at No. 6, Craig’s Court, Charing Cross ; and thus 
was founded what was then termed “ The Museum of Economic 
Geology.” 
An institution so practical in character and so peculiarly 
adapted to the wants of a great commercial and manufacturing 
community at once attracted the sympathy of those engaged in 
our mining and metallurgical industries. Contributions of 
appropriate specimens were thus readily secured, and so rapid 
was the growth of the collections that, in the course of a very 
few years, it became necessary to secure ampler accommodation. 
Eventually the Government authorised the erection, by the late 
Mr. James Pennethorne, t)f the present building, which is 
situated between Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, and is officially 
designated “ The Museum of Practical Geology.” 
On May 12, 1851, the Museum was formally opened by the 
Prince Consort in the presence of a distinguished assembly. 
His Royal Highness, in acknowledging an address presented by 
the Director, spoke as follows : — 
“ In thanking you for the address which you have just read to me, I 
would also express the sincere gratification with which I witness the 
opening,— in a form more likely to make it generally and practically 
useful, — of an institution the progress of which I have long watched with 
much interest, and the want of which has been Jong felt in this country. 
I rejoice in the proof thus afforded of the general and still increasing 
interest taken in scientific pursuits ; while science herself, by the su£ 
division into the various and distinct fields of her study, aims daily more and 
