Belfast Museum. 559 



of which Mr. Estlin's yielded 92/. 105. 6d. 9 Mr. Worsley's 

 98/. Is. 0d., and Dr. Riley's 198/. 75. lid. The greatest 

 net receipts were from Dr. Spurzheim's course, producing 

 160/. 75. 66?., one half to the Institution; Mr. Thel wall's 

 double course of 1829, producing 160/. 135., yielding 60/. 13s. 

 to the Institution ; Dr. Carpenter's course of 1830, producing 

 109/. 25., one third to the Institution; and Dr. Riley's, of 

 1831, producing 93/. 35. 5d. 9 wholly for the Institution. The 

 profit derived from the exhibitions (including the payments 

 from the Society of Artists, and from the recent exhibition of 

 Danby's Opening of the Seventh Seal) has amounted to 

 nearly 1,140/. The recorded pecuniary donations for specific 

 objects (not including 100/. from the corporation in 1834) 

 have amounted to above 2,500/. The annual income from 

 the subscriptions of members and nominees appears to be 

 about 730/. 



Belfast Museum. — The eighth Public Meeting of the Natural 

 History Society was held in the museum, on Wednesday, 

 the 25th May ; about one hundred and twenty members and 

 visiters being present. 



The council, in laying before the members a report of the 

 present session, observe that it is one whose course has been 

 attended by the same unanimity among the members, and the 

 same progressive increase of their number, which have so 

 justly formed a subject of congratulation on former occasions : 

 but it is one which has not been marked by any unusual or 

 remarkable event, such as distinguished the two preceding 

 sessions. In one of these, a debt of nearly 800/. had been 

 discharged; in the other, the unfinished portions of the 

 building had been completed. Our history, during the past 

 session, has not been of embarrassing circumstances overcome, 

 or of serious difficulties surmounted, but is one of cheerful 

 and prosperous advancement — less eventful, but not less 

 gratifying — furnishing less to record, but not less on which 

 to frame our pleasing recollections of the past, and our happy 

 anticipations of the future. 



During the session, seven public papers have been read: — 

 1st. By the President, on the 21st Oct., on "the various 

 Contrivances for diffusing Seeds, observable in Cryptogamic 

 Plants," illustrated by numerous magnified drawings. 



2d. By Mr. Robert Patterson, on " the Insects mentioned 

 in Shakspeare's Plays," being a continuation of several 

 former papers. 



3d. The same subject was resumed by Mr. Patterson, at 

 the request of the Society. 



4th. Read by Mr. Grattan, on " the Busts of Sir Walter 



