Natii:- al Histor^y in London, 79 



ently of all scientific or useful views, the circumstance of a member being 

 able to give cards of admission to the museum and garden to his friends, 

 would have been sufficient to have rendered this Society one of the most 

 popular in the metropolis. We believe, if the Society were better known, 

 this would be the case, and we wish to find it so, not only as extending 

 innocent and instructive amusement, but as contributing to a science, which 

 more than any other demonstrates the existence of design in its subjects. 



In the first prospectus issued by this Society, one of their objects is stated 

 to be, " the introduction of new varieties, breeds, and races of animals, for 

 the purpose of domestication, or for stocking our farm-yards, woods, plea- 

 sure-grounds, and wastes." When this object of the Society comes to be 

 better known, we have no doubt it will be most liberally supported by the 

 wealthy and the patriotic. 



We anticipate an extraordinary source of interest in the menagerie, 

 which we should like to see combined with an arboretum and a col- 

 lection of all the plants that will endure our climate, distributed over the 

 whole of the Regent's Park, the common trees already planted there being 

 cut out, as those belonging to the collection grow up to supply their places. 



The secretary of this society is N. A. Vigors, Esq., one of our first zoolo- 

 gists, and editor of the ZoologicalJournal. 



The Medico- Botanical Society of London. — This Society was established 

 in 1821, for the purpose of especially promoting, by means of experiments 

 and lectures, the sciences of medical botany, pharmaceutic chemistry, and 

 materia medica. The necessity of such an institution must be very obvious, 

 when it is stated, that, previously to its foundation, there was no Society 

 for the investigation of the properties of plants, although there were several 

 for the encouragement of general botany. It consists of fellows and cor- 

 responding members : the former of whom pay an annual subscription of 

 two guineas, or a composition of twenty guineas, in lieu of all contri- 

 butions ; the latter pay no subscription, but must reside out of England. 



Gentlemen, desirous of becoming fellows, must signify their wishes to 

 the secretary, who will lay the same before the council, when they will be 

 ballotted for at the meeting following that at which they shall have been 

 proposed. They have the privilege of attending and introducing one per- 

 son to the lectures and meetings; and of inspecting the collections of spe- 

 cimens, the herbarium, and the library- All new medicines are submitted 

 to the Society by its professors, who report their experiments and observa- 

 tions thereon. 



The council look forward to be enabled to fit up a reading-room, mu- 

 seum, and laboratory, as soon as their funds will enable them to carry into 

 effect such a desirable object. The Society meet every month throughout 

 the year, except August and September, at the apartments formerly occu- 

 pied by the Board of Agriculture, No. 32. Sackville Street, Piccadilly, where 

 all communications are requested to be addressed. The Society are endea- 

 vouring to collect the medicinal plants of the several colonies, in order 

 that gentlemen visiting them in a professional capacity, may inspect the 

 same, and become acquainted with their characters previously to their 

 departure. To encourage the labours of their members, the Society give 

 annually a gold and silver medal for the best communications on medical 

 botany. The President is Sir James M'Grigor, M.D. F.R.S. K.T.S., Di- 

 rector-General of the Army Medical Board j John Frost, Esq. F.S.A. 

 M.R.I. F.L.S. H.S., is Director, and Professor of Botany j and Richard 

 Morris, Esq. F.L.S., is Secretary. The number of members in all exceeds 

 two hundred. 



At a meeting of this Society in October last, 56 lbs. of the seed of ^rge- 

 mone mexicana, a mild purgative, were presented by Mr. Higgins, of Nevis; 

 and about 30 lbs. of the seed of Genista tinctoria, from the Rev. Mr. Smir- 

 novi. The last is a plant used by thfe Russians as a cure for hydrophobia. 



