ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
23
evidently those which afterwards figured in the Royal Society's
Museum.
As soon as the Society thus acquired the nucleus of a collec-
tion, donations flowed in rapidly, including many objects of a
rather curious character. Sir Robert Moray, for instance,
presented "a bottle full of stag's tears"—reputed at that time
to possess much medicinal value. We have not, I believe, yet
procured for our Museum a similar specimen as a relic of the
red deer of Epping Forest.
When Boyle died in 1691 it was found that he had
bequeathed to the Society his mineral collection, or as he
described it, "all my raw and unprepared minerals as ores,
marchasites, earths, stones (excepting jewels), etc., to be kept
among their collections of the like kind, as a testimony of my
great respect for the illustrious Society."24
But before the time of the Boyle bequest the collections had
grown so large that it was felt necessary to have a catalogue.
Accordingly, at a meeting on July 18, 1678, it was ordered "That
Dr. Grew be desired at his leasure (sic) to make a Catalogue and
Description of the Rarities belonging to this Society." At that
time the Repository, as it was called, contained, we are told,
"several thousand specimens of zoological subjects and foreign
curiosities." Nehemiah Grew, who was commissioned to
compile the catalogue, was a very learned, versatile, and
industrious man, especially distinguished for his researches in
vegetable physiology. He seems to have completed his catalogue
within a year, though it was not published until 1681, when it
appeared as a folio of 388 pages, with an anatomical supplement
of 43 pages. It was dedicated to Daniel Colwall, a wealthy
citizen, described as Founder of the Museum, and his portrait
forms the frontispiece.24*
The catalogue is in many places very quaint and amusing
reading, and offers an insight into the state of natural history
two centuries ago. In 1682 Grew was appointed to take charge
of the Repository under the title of "Praefectus Musei Regalis
Societatis," and he was requested to "make a short catalogue of
24 The quotations are from A History of the Royal Society. By Charles Richard Weld.
London : 1848.
24* Musaeum Regalis Societatis, or a Catalogue and Description of the Natural and Artificial
Rarities belonging to the Royal Society, and preserved at Gresham College. Made by
Nehemiah Grew, M.D. Whereunto is Subjoined the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and
Guts. By the same Author. London : 1681.