Excerpt from The Industry of Nations, as Exemplified in the Great Exhibition of 1851: The Materials of Industry It is evident from these facts that the products of industry were felt to be of importance even to philo sophy: but the period in which Boyle lived was one in which private investigation was calculated to be more useful than public exhibition, as knowledge of every kind was at that time almost in its infancy. The formation of museums may perhaps be taken as representing the earliest instances of exhibitions of natural produce, or of curious art. The following account of these collections by the present writer, (which has appeared in another place, ) will convey some conception of their general character. 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.