8 



Towards the commencement of the Session, the 

 Secretaries received a letter from the London Statisti- 

 cal Society, asking an answer to certain queries, and 

 suggesting the propriety of establishing some channel 

 of mutual communication. To the reply of the 

 Council assenting to the general proposition, no answer 

 has yet been received: nevertheless the subject is one 

 of growing intricacy and importance, and if this So- 

 ciety can devise any means by which it can be prose- 

 cuted with adequate attention, they will assist materi- 

 ally in accumulating and analysing a mass of informa- 

 tion of incalculable practical importance to the com- 

 munity at large. 



It has already been stated that the Session was 

 opened with "An Account of the late Scientific Meet- 

 ing at Edinburgh," by Mr. West, one of the Secre- 

 taries of the Society, and its representative at the 

 Edinburgh Meeting. That assembly drew into the 

 North two distinguished philosophers, strangers in 

 person and in residence, but names familiar as house- 

 hold words to the ears of their fellow-labourers in the 

 fields of science. These gentlemen. Dr. Buckland, 

 Professor of Geology at Oxford, and M. Agassiz, 

 Professor of Natural History at Neufchatel, attracted 

 by the fame of the specimens of fossil fish from the 

 coal formations of the district, took the opportunity of 

 visiting Leeds for the express purpose of inspecting 

 its Museum. That they were satisfied with the general 

 arrangements, and even acknowledged some instruc- 

 tion in minor details, is certainly not discreditable to 



