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Original Papers: Governmen School of Mines, d-.               48 
are collected, with the view of exhibiting the various modes of working carried
on in different districts. 
The palmontological series is remarkably complete, illustrating the order
of 
occurrence of our organic formations. 
The facilities afforded by' this Institution have determined the Government
to organise within it a mining school. Such schools have existed for very
many years in most of the other countries of Europe, but in this country,
which furnishes very nearly one-half of the minerals derived from the whole
of Europe, valued at the enormous sum of 24,000,0001. a-year, and where the
capital and labour employed are in like proportion, and represent a still
larger 
sum, there has previously been no such institution. 
The collections of the museum being in a condition and of an extent to be
made available for educational purposes, and the laboratories and working-
rooms of the several departments so arranged and organised, that systematic
studies in chemistry, metallurgy, geology, palveontology, physics, mineralogy,
and mining, might be entered upon with advantage; its officers were selected
with a view to carry out the educational character of the institution, recognised
shortly after its formation by an -official letter of the Chief Commissioner
of 
Her Majesty's Woods, and sanctioned by the Lords of the Treasury. 
The establishment is under the direction of Sir Henry T. De la Beche, C.B.,
F.RS., and the educational courses are intrusted to the following professors
- 
professor of chemistry, applied to the arts and agriculture, Lyon Playfair,
Ph.D., F.R.S.; professor of natural history, applied to geology and the arts,
Edward Forbes, F.R.S. ; professor of mechanical science with its application
to 
mining, Robert Hunt, Esq., keeper of mining records; professor of metallurgy,
with its special applications, John Percy, M.D., F.R.S. ; professor of geology,
and its practical applications, A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S.; professor of mining
and 
mineralogy, Warrington W. Smyth, M.A., F.G.S. 
The education contemplated in this school will differ essentially from that
given in colleges, where general education is the primary object. Although
it 
is intended to give general instruction in science, to those who may require
elementary knowledge, still, the professed object of the institution, and
to which 
everything else is made subsidiary, is to give a practical direction to the
course 
of study, so as to enable the student to enter with advantage upon the actual
practice of the art to which he intends to devote himself. 
The establishment offers many peculiar advantages for the study of mining,
and the branches of science upon which its successful pursuit depends. 
The geological surveys of the United Kingdom are carried on under the 
general direction of Sir H. T. De la Beche, and their central office is at
the 
museum. In this office the maps and sections are prepared and deposited,
and it is contemplated to communicate instruction in the field in the various
departments of geological surveying, under the mining, the geological, and
the 
palveontological professors. 
An office, superintended by Mr. R. Hunt, is established for the preservation
of mining records. The absence of these needful documents was found to be
the cause of much waste, either in attempts to work in localities where there
is little prospect of success, or where from a want of proper knowledge of
the 
old workings much useless expenditure is incurred. Numerous copies of plans
and sections of mines, and many important statistical mining details, are
deposited in this office and are made available for general instruction.
There are two laboratories in the museum, one for general, practical, and
analytical chemistry, the other for metallurgy and assaying, to which students
will be admitted for the purpose of receiving instruction in the analysis
of 
minerals and ores, and of the methods used in applying them to useful pur-
poses in the arts. 
And, lastly, a department of natural history, where the organic remains 
contained in the sedimentary rocks of the British Islands may be examined
and preserved. Extensive collections of these fossils are now made and 
arranged, and are used for the instruction of students. 
Full particulars of the course of lectures, which commences in November,
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