In the original charter of the Royal Society, it was provided that the collections of the Society should be deposited, if belonging to Natural History, in the Museum of the University, and if to Antiquities, in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. Much inconvenience, however, could hardly fail to result from this arrangement, especially when the researches of the Society, having, as of late, been much turned to Geology, it became an object to collect together the specimens which served to illustrate the subjects under discussion, and to have them at hand when reference should be necessary.