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Excerpt from Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum The foundation of the british museum originated with the will of Sir hans sloane, who, during a long period of practice as a physician, had accumulated, in cd dition to a considerable Library of Books and Manuscripts, the largest collection of Objects of Natural History and Works of Art of his time. These he directed should be offered after his death, which took place in 1753, to Par liament. The offer was accepted; and the Act of 26 Geo. II., which directed the purchase, also directed the purchase of the Harleian Library of Manuscripts; and enacted that the Cottonian Library, which had been given to the Govern ment for public use in the reign of Will. III., should, with these, form one General Collection. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.