its active operations, though no suitable opportunity has 

 arisen for bringing them before the attention of the Society. 

 Nor should it be considered a circumstance reflecting any 

 discredit on the original promoters, that the building is 

 found so inadequate to its increasing requirements. It 

 will be recollected that the establishment of a Museum was 

 scarcely contemplated, or at least not avowed, by those 

 public-spirited individuals ; and, that the prosperity of 

 the general objects of the Society has so far out-grown their 

 most sanguine anticipations, that the building, at first thought 

 unnecessarily spacious, is now found small and incommo- 

 dious. Your attention is invited to a few of its most obvious 

 imperfections. 



The Lecture-room, both in its construction and situa- 

 tion, is liable to several objections. It affords accommoda- 

 tions scarcely sufficient to admit the whole of its members, 

 and the visitors introduced by the additional tickets of pro- 

 prietors. In many instances that have occurred, when the 

 public and the members of the Society have been attracted 

 to the Hall by Lectures of great popularity, the lecture- 

 room has been found quite inadequate. It is totally unfit 

 for many experiments in natmral philosophy requiring the 

 presence of a strong solar light. Its vicinity to the street, 

 which is daily becoming more frequented, by the formation 

 of new communications with other parts of the town, and 

 by the growing commercial character of the neighbourhood, 

 is productive of much disturbance. 



The Museum, which was formed without any reference to 

 its present object, is consequently quite unsuitable as a deposi- 

 tory of subjects of Natural History, requiring scientific arrange- 

 ment, and the indispensable advantages of a regulated tempera- 

 ture, and a vertical light. It has been for some time acknow- 

 ledged, that much inconvenience has arisen from the want 

 of private rooms for the officers of the Society, for the 

 transaction of its increasing and multifarious business. In 

 addition to these several desiderata, it may not be improper 



