INTRODUCTION. iii 
tors,, and vested the property of the Museum in 
Trustees for the use of the Public.* 
A beginning having thus been made of a public 
scientific Repository,, it was deemed expedient to 
enlarge its extent^ and increase its importance, by 
adding 
* From a schedule which was handed about at the time of the 
purchase, we collect the following totals of the contents of this 
Museum but as this document is by no means authentic, we must 
request our readers to consider these numbers rather as approxi,? 
mations than as accurate enumerations. 
Library of printed books and manuscripts, including books 
of prints and drawings. Vols. 50,000 
Coins and medals.....23,000 
Antique idols, utensils, &c . *....1,125 
Camoes, intaglios, seals, &c.1,500 
Vessels and utensils of agate, jasper, &c.542 
Anatomical preparations of human bodies, parts of mum¬ 
mies, calculi, &c. 756 
Quadrupeds and their parts. 8,186 
Birds and their parts, eggs and nests. 1,172 
Fishes and their parts. 1,555 
Amphibia. 521 
Crustacea .. 1,436 
Shells, echini, entrochi . 5,845 
Insects. 5,394 
Corals, spunges, zoophytes. 1,421 
Stones, ores, bitumens, salts, &c. 9,942 
Volumes of dried plants. 334 
Mathematical instruments. 55 
Miscellaneous artificial curiosities . 2,098 
catalogues of the whole Museum, 38 vols. fol. and 8 quarto, 
B 2 
; 
The Cotton i ax* 
Library. 
