61 



town were indebted for the interesting and instruc- 

 tive lectures on Mechanical Philosophy, which 

 were delivered by Dr.Birkbeck, in these rooms, in 

 the summer of the following year. Coming nearer 

 to our own time, we can all bear ample testimony, 

 from personal knowledge and experience, to Dr. 

 Alderson's exertions in the cause of science. 

 This institution is greatly indebted to him for its 

 existence : " It had long," as he said, when pre- 

 siding at its first meeting, " been the wish of his 

 " heart to see such a society formed ;"* and we 

 all know that the progress which it made under 

 his presidency, during the first four years of its 

 establishment, is greatly to be attributed to the 

 spirit of inquiry which his industry and example 

 infused into its members. He is now no more ! 

 and his literary remains are all which, in con- 

 nection with our present object, we have to con- 

 sider. His first production was "An Essay on the 

 " nature and origin of the Contagion of Fevers," 

 which was printed atHull, in 1 788. In June, 1 796, 

 his, "Essay on the Improvement of Poor Soils," 

 which was printed in 1802, was read before the 

 Holderness Agricultural Society; and, in 1799, he 

 communicated to Nicholson's Journal, " Geolo- 

 " gical Observations on the Vicinity of Hull and 



See an " Address, read on Tuesday, 15th July, 1823, to the Members 

 "of the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society, at the opening of the 

 " Institution, by John Alderson, M.D., President," p. 3. 



