INTRODUCTION# XVII 
pursuits. Our next duty is briefly to state what 
the Trustees, in their corporate capacity, have 
effected towards the further increase of the 
establishment committed to their care. If, in 
recording their various acquisitions, we have 
not objects of such magnitude to notice as 
those above specified, yet some, it will be allow* 
ed, are by no means of trivial import; and it 
must moreover be observed, that not only the 
fund at their disposal for these purposes is very 
limited, but that a great part of it is neces¬ 
sarily expended from time to time in the pur¬ 
chase of single books, and other separate articles, 
which occasionally present themselves for sale, 
and which however important, are yet far too 
numerous to be here specifically described. 
It might well be expected, that, in consequence 
of the great progress made of late years in the 
science of Natural History, the collection of Sir 
Hans Sloane, which, when it was purchased, 
was deemed of the first magnitude, would insen¬ 
sibly become retrograde in its comparative value : 
and this in fact was found to be particularly the 
case in the classes of Ornithology, and Minera¬ 
logy. Accordingly, in order to supply the for¬ 
mer of these deficiencies, the Trustees being, in 
the year 17C9, informed that a large collection 
D of 
