specimens of the coarser vessels used by the Greeks for common purposes, as for holding wine, &c.; as also of the cinerary urnsone of earthenware, in Cases XXXIII, XXXIV, from a sepulchre near Athens; and another of the same material, but of a remarkable shape, painted white, in Cases XXXV, XXXVI, shelf 3, both containing human bones. In Cases XXXVIII-XLI are five leaden vases from the island of Delos, also full of human bones.

A few years ago, one of the objects of greatest attraction in the museum was a particular cinerary urn known by the name of the Portland or Barberini vase. It used to stand under a glass cover on an octagonal table in one of the small rooms, and visitors used to gather round it admiringly. This vase was not of clay, like the Etruscan and the majority of the Greek vases, but of a dark-blue glass, the figures and devices being raised on this in white enamel. The height of the whole was ten inches; at the open top the diameter was three and a-half inches;

at the narrowest part of the neck it was two inches; and under this there bulged out the body of the vase, the diameter of which, at the broadest part, was seven, and at the bottom five inches. There were two handles, one on each side. The contrast of the white figures with the deep blue ground produced a most beautiful effect, which the singular elegance of the form greatly enhanced. The figures were seven in numberthree men, three women, and a Cupid, or winged boy, arranged as

follows: Near one of the handles a male figure standing under a kind of porch, and offering his extended arm to a female seated on the ground, over whose head bends the branch of a tree: a winged boy is hovering over these two figures; and to the right is a man leaning his elbow, in an easy attitude, on his knee, the foot being raised on a stone, and his chin resting on his hand. We then come to the second handle, near which is a man seated on a stone, and looking at a female figure reclining in an easy and elegant attitude, with an inverted torch in her left hand, and the right passing over her head; the branch of a tree bends over her; and at her left hand is another male figure looking towards her, and holding a staff in his left hand. These figures are about five inches in height, and are modelled or moulded with minute

accuracy. Being different in colour and in opacity from the glass on which they are laid, they must have been fashioned before being fixed on the vase; yet the union has been so complete, that no joint can be seen between them; and the minute details of the figures have not been in the slightest degree injured by the heat which in all probability was necessary in the process of cementation. At the bottom of the vase is an enamelled head and bust, and under each handle is a small, wild-looking head, with long hair and beard.' As to the precise import of the figures and devices there have been various opinions, none of which is perfectly satisfactory.

This beautiful product of Greek art was discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century in a marble sarcophagus in a sepulchre at a place called Monte del Grano, about two miles and a-half from Rome. The sepulchre was believed to be that of the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus (A. D. 223–235), and his mother Mammæa; hence the vase is supposed to have been the cinerary urn of one or other of these royal personages. One of the theories, indeed, with respect to the meaning of the enamelled figures is, that they represented some scene or scenes in the life of Severus. Being greatly admired, the vase was deposited, immediately after its discovery, in the palace of the Barberini family at Rome, where it remained till 1770. It was purchased in that year by Sir William Hamilton, from whose possession it passed into that of the late Duchess of Portland. In 1810 the Duke of Portland, one of the trustees of the museum, allowed it to be placed in that institution, retaining, however, his right over it as his own property. For upwards of thirty years, accordingly, it was to be seen by visitors of the museum. But on the afternoon of the 7th of February 1845, a miscreant named William Lloyd, described as a tall young man of delicate appearance, and about twenty years of age,' destroyed this beautiful relic of antiquity by dashing it to pieces with a stone. In the course of two months, during which he had been living idle about London, he had visited the museum several times before, so that he must have formed some idea of the value of the relic; nor could any motive be assigned for his act except an insane love of mischief, or a diseased ambition for notoriety. He was apprehended on the spot; but, owing to the defective state of the law then applicable to such offences, only a slight punishment could be inflicted. A bill, however, was immediately passed through parliament providing specially for future cases of the same kind; and at present, any person who should maliciously injure or destroy any article, whether of intrinsic value or not, deposited in any public museum, cabinet, or gallery, would be liable to an

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imprisonment of two years, and to one, two, or three public or private whippings. This, it is hoped, will effectually prevent the perpetration of such offences.

The pieces of the fractured vase having been carefully gathered up, were afterwards united in a very complete manner; and thus repaired, it still exists in the museum, a monument at once of exquisite Greek genius and of skilful modern handiwork. It is not now shown, however, to the public, nor is it entered in the catalogue. A small number of copies of the Portland vase were made many years ago by the celebrated Mr Wedgewood; they were exact and admirable likenesses of the original, and were sold at twenty-five guineas each. The moulds used for these copies still exist, but the difficulty of producing each copy is so great, as to prevent their multiplication.*

*On the subject of ancient vases, their uses, &c. see Mrs Hamilton Gray's' Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria;' also the large and finely illustrated works of Sir William Hamilton, Millingen, &c.; Dubois' Maissonneuve; Introduction à l'Etude de Vases Antiques;' Smith's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities;' Moses's Collection of Antique Vases, &c. from Various Museums; and Dennis's 'Cities and Sepulchres of Etruria.'

NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT.

Under the general and not very accurate name of NATURAL HISTORY is usually comprehended the following group of sciences: 1. Mineralogy, whose object it is to describe and classify the individual mineral substances of the globe. 2. Hydrology, which takes cognisance of the various modes in which water is distributed over the earth-as in oceans, seas, rivers, floods, springs, cataracts, &c. 3. Geology, which concerns itself with the solid crust of the earth, so far as it has been yet penetrated, describing the arrangement of the various mineral masses that compose it, and attempting to account for that arrangement. 4. Meteorology, whose business is with the atmosphere that surrounds the globe, and the various phenomena therein presented—such as rain, snow, wind, thunder, &c. 5. Botany, which describes and classifies the innumerable vegetable productions with which the earth is clothed; and, 9, Zoology, which considers and arranges the manifold forms of animated nature with which the earth, the air, and the sea are peopled. These sciences merge into each other at various points; but it is useful to regard them as distinct, just as it is useful to regard the general science of NATURAL HISTORY to which they all belong as distinct from the two great sciences of CHEMISTRY and MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY, with which, in the general programme of human knowledge, it stands associated.

Of the six sciences enumerated in the Natural History group, it is obvious that some, from their very nature, cannot be represented in a museum. Such are hydrology and meteorology, it being impossible to assemble in a room, or other limited space, either the rivers, oceans, or cataracts with which the one, or the thunders, hailstones, and lightnings with which the other, is concerned. As regards mineralogy, botany, and zoology, the case is entirely different. Specimens of all, or at least of a large proportion of the individual minerals, plants, and animals found in or upon the globe, may, if the necessary pains is taken, be collected at any one spot, and exhibited there to the curious. Nor, even with regard to geology, is such a method totally impossible. It is true that, in order to convey artificially an idea of the arrangement of the great mineral masses com

posing the crust of the earth, we must rely chiefly on the aids available also in hydrology and meteorology—that is, on verbal description, accompanied by pictures, engravings, or models; but there is one branch of geology, and that perhaps the most interesting, which it is possible to illustrate by the more decisive method of actually presenting to the eye the objects spoken about. This branch of geology is that named Palæontology (from three Greek words—palaios, old; on, existence or substance; and logos, discourse), the object of which is to collect and arrange the organic remains that is, the relics of ancient plants and animals-found imbedded in a fossil or petrified condition at various depths in the earth's crust. Such fossils, being limited in size, may be detached from the rocks in which they were found, and arranged in apartments devoted to the purpose, where, by their simple inspection, the student may learn much relative to the vegetation with which our planet was covered, and the animal life with which it teemed, in the primitive ages of its history; or by connecting them in his imagination with the verbal descriptions, &c. used in other branches of geology, he may represent to himself the series of changes through which the planet must have passed before its materials assumed their present state of arrangement.

In the British Museum, accordingly, there are included in the Natural History Department collections of four distinct classes of objects one of minerals, forming a Mineralogical section; one of preserved plants, seeds, &c. forming a Botanical section; one of preserved animals, forming a Zoological section; and one of fossils, or organic remains, constituting a section illustrative of that branch of geology named Paleontology. Fossils, however, being but minerals of a peculiar description, the mineralogical and palæontological sections of the museum are not kept apart, but are placed in one continuous gallery under the management of one principal keeper, called the Keeper of the Minerals and Fossils. As regards the arrangements of the museum, this is quite proper; but for the purposes of the present description, it will be best to treat the fossils by themselves, giving them the last place in the Natural History Department. For as fossils partake of the qualities both of organic and inorganic nature, being either mineralised vegetable, or mineralised animal forms, they can be looked at intelligently only by one who has acquired beforehand some notions of botany and zoology. In describing the Natural History Department of the museum, we shall therefore speak, 1st, Of the minerals; 2d, Of the plants and botanical specimens; 3d, Of the zoological specimens ; and, 4th, Of the fossils:

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