XXV111 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



" That the specimens when so laid down be systematically ar- 

 ranged, and placed in drawers in a more easily accessible situation. 



" 7. Miscellaneous Zoological Specimens. 



" These chiefly consist of a few Reptiles and Crustacea, contained 

 in some of the drawers of the shell-cabinet, or in those of the 

 cabinet of the large attic, which the President undertook to exa- 

 mine, and to separate whatever can be identified as Linnean. 



" While examining the miscellaneous specimens in the south 

 attic, the Committee observed several bundles of Swedish acade- 

 mical announcements, and anatomical and other dissertations not 

 immediately connected with natural history. They recommend 

 that these parcels be securely placed in brown-paper covers, 

 labelled with a general statement of their contents. Twelve 

 copies of Broussonnet's ' Descriptiones et Icones Piscium,' which 

 are duplicates to the Library, are recommended to be sold. 



"In the Linnean shell-cabinet the Committee find a large 

 number of bad or injured specimens of Lichens on Stones, chiefly 

 British, and forming no part of the Linnean Collection. These 

 appear to be utterly worthless, and the Committee recommend 

 that they be thrown away." 



It cannot but be most gratifying to learn that these collections, 

 to which so peculiar a value attaches, should have been found by 

 the Committee in so perfect a state. It was indeed far beyond 

 the expectations of those who were deputed to examine them. 



I have now, Gentlemen, to call your attention to a matter to 

 which I have already alluded, and which, if our present anticipa- 

 tions are fulfilled, must be productive of the most advantageous 

 results to this Society, and I may add, ultimately to the advance 

 of natural knowledge in this country. You are all too well aware 

 that, while other Societies formed for the cultivation of various 

 branches of science, the Royal, the Geological, the Astronomical, 

 and the Geographical Societies, had received, one after another, 

 the substantial support of the Government, in having commodious 

 apartments assigned to them, — three of them being located in that 

 great central official building, Somerset House, — -the Linnean 

 Society, the representative of the natural-history sciences in this 

 country, the oldest offspring of the great parent of British science, 

 and certainly not the least useful and important of such bodies, 

 remained unaided and unsanctioned by the authorities of the 

 Government, dependent wholly upon its own resources, shackled 



