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BOOK THE THIRD.

LATER AUGMENTORS AND

BENEFACTORS.

1829-1870.

THE comprehensive character of the British Museumthe origin of which may be traced to the heterogeneous nature of Sir Hans SLOANE'S bequest-doubtless makes it difficult to provide for the expansion of its various branches, according to their relative demands upon the space and light which can be applied to their accommodation. Any attempt, however, now to diminish that difficulty by segregating any portion, or by scattering in various localities the components of the vast aggregate, would involve a sacrifice. of great scientific advantages which are not the less inherent in their union because that union was, in its origin, fortuitous. . . .

'Some passages of our evidence... illustrate the difficulty of drawing a line of separation, for purposes of management and superintendence, between certain Collections. . . . . Its occurrence [i. e. the occurrence of such a difficulty] indicates strongly the value to Science, of the accidents which have placed in near juxtaposition the Collections of mineralogy [and] of forms of existing and extinct animal and vegetable life. The immediate connexion of all alike. with the Library of the Museum is too important to allow us to contemplate its dissolution.'-Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Constitution and Management of the British Museum (1850), p. 36.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE
BRITISH MUSEUM, UNDER THE ADMINIS-
TRATION, AS PRINCIPAL-LIBRARIAN, OF
JOSEPH PLANTA.

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Notices of the Life of Joseph PLANTA, third Principal-
Librarian.-Improvements in the Internal Economy of
the Museum introduced or recommended by Mr.
PLANTA. His labours for the enlargement of the
Collections and on the Museum Publications and
Catalogues.-The Museum Gardens and the Duke of

Bedford.

Chap. I.

HITHERTO these pages have chiefly had to do with the BOOK III, history of the integral parts of the British Museum, and HISTORY with that of the men by whom these integral parts, taken severally, were first founded or first gathered. We have UNDER

OF THE

MUSEUM

MR. PLANTA.

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