BRITISH MUSEUM.

A GUIDE

TO THE

EXHIBITION ROOMS

OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF

NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES.

STANFORD LIBRARY

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES.

1866.

(Price Sixpence.)

THE present "Guide" gives a concise account of the contents of the exhibition rooms in the several departments of Zoology, Minerals, Fossils, Botany, and Antiquities, in the British Museum, and is intended to supply such information as is necessary for the generality of visitors to the collections, in addition to that which is furnished by the labels attached to the various objects.

A Synopsis, which is to be published hereafter, will give a fuller description of these collections, accompanied by scientific and literary notes, and illustrated by woodengravings.*

In the year 1753 an Act of Parliament was passed (26 Geo. II. cap. 22), enacting that the collections formed by Sir Hans Sloane, as well as the Cottonian and Harleian collections of Manuscripts, should be vested in certain Trustees, and, together with such additions as might be made to them, placed in one general repository, to be there preserved for public use to all posterity. The Trustees were incorporated under the name of "Trustees of the BRITISH MUSEUM," with power to make such regulations as they deemed fit for the preservation and inspection of the collections, the care and custody of which were chiefly committed to the " Principal Librarian," who was to be continually aided in the execution of his duty by such officers as should be appointed for that purpose.

Montague House was purchased by the Trustees in 1754 for a general repository, and the collections were removed to it under the above Act of Parliament. On the 15th. of. January, 1759, the British Museum was, opened for the inspection and use of the public. At first the Museum was divided into three departments, viz., Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Natural History; at the head of each of them was placed an officer designated an "Under Librarian."

The increase of the collections soon rendered it necessary to pro

* See the part relating to the First Vase-Room, already published, price one penny.