40 
NATURAL HISTORY. (Minerals.) 
[north 
NORTH GALLERY. 
The Rooms on the North side of the North Wing are appropriated to 
the Collections of Minerals and Fossils. Of the latter seep. 68. 
MINERALS. 
In accordance with the plan laid downfor their distribution, the Table 
Cases containing the General Collection of Minerals form two rows-, 
or series, extending through four rooms or compartments of the gal¬ 
lery, as follows :— 
In Room 1.^, being the N. E. corner room, the first series of Table 
Cases begins and the second terminates : it contains Cases 1 to 6 and 
55 to 60, with six supplemental Cases. Room 11. contains the Cases 
7 to 13 and 48 to 54. Room III. the Cases 14 to 23 and 38 to 47, with 
two supplemental Cases; and in Room IV. are placed the Cases 24 
to 30 and 31 to 37, the arrangement of which is nearly completed. 
The system adopted for the arrangement of the Minerals, with occa¬ 
sional deviations, is that of Berzelius, founded upon the electro¬ 
chemical theory and the doctrine of definite proportions, as developed 
by him in several memoirs read before the Royal Academy of Sciences 
of Stockholm. The detail of this arrangement cannot here be entered 
into : it is, however, partly supplied by the running titles at the out¬ 
sides of the Table Cases, and by the labels within themf. 
The first two Cases, and part of the third, contain the electro-positive 
native metals: iron, copper, bismuth, lead, silver, mercury, palladium, 
platinum, osmium and gold. 
Cases 1 and 1a. Native iron of undoubtedly terrestrial origin is of 
very rare occurrence, almost all the insulated masses of this metal hitherto 
found having proved to be meteoric, and of these the following speci¬ 
mens are deposited nearly in the order of their discovery, or of the first 
mention made of them :— 
1751. A portion of the mass of iron of the descent of which, at Agrara, 
in Croatia, on the 26th of May, detailed official accounts were 
drawn up by the authorities of that place, who presented it to the 
Roman Emperor, Francis L, and to the Empress Maria Theresa. 
* It may here be observed that among the objects separately placed in Room I. 
are—near the window opposite to the Table Case containing the native silver, a 
branched variety of that metal from Kongsberg, presented by H. Heuland, Esq. 
in the centre window of the east side, a large portion of the trunk of a coniferous 
tree converted into semi-opal, presented by Lady Chantrey;—in the window near 
the Table Cases containing the sulphates, a very large mass of Websterite, from 
Newhaven, Sussex, presented by Dr. Mantell;—a large specimen of the brown coal 
of Iceland, called Surturbrarid. The sculptured tortoise near the centre of this 
room, placed on a round table inlaid with various antique marbles and other 
mineral substances, is w'rought out of nephrite or jade: it w'as found on the 
banks of the Jumna, near the city of Allahabad, in Hindostan, brought to 
England by Lieutenant-General Kyd, and presented to the Museum by Thomas 
Wilkinson, Esq. 
f An electro-chemical arrangement, in accordance with the principles laid down 
by the great Swedish chemise himself not long before his death, in a merhoir on 
this subject, has been given by Prof. Rammelsberg, in his “ J. J. Berzelius* Neues 
Mineral Systemi Niirnberg, 1847,” and will, if circumstances allow it, be hereafter 
adopted for the collection contained in the Table Cases; the present arrangement 
remaining nearly as w^e find it in the 4th ed. of Berzelius’ work on the Use of the 
Blowpipe, published in 1824. 
