d 



have already been made public and are on record; 

 and the Society owes to his memory a large debt of 

 gratitude. 



Three times in eighteen years has the Society been 

 called upon to pay a similar mournful tribute, and the 

 suspension of the arrangement of the Museum atten- 

 dant on the illness of a single Curator, with the 

 disadvantage of abrupt change of system under a suc- 

 cessor, were reasons, among others, which induced a 

 great majority of the Society to pass an alteration of 

 the Laws relating to that office, under which the care 

 of that department is now vested in three Curators 

 jointly. While the Council believe that seldom has it 

 been the lot of any Society to replace a valuable and 

 efficient officer in succession, so completely as we have 

 done, they anticipate, from the conjoint exertions of 

 the three Curators now appointed, accessions to the 

 Museum which no individual could singly obtain, and 

 trust that the^classification of specimens will not only 

 proceed with rapidity, but will acquire greater conti- 

 nuity and ability than when liable to entire reversal by 

 the change of the Curator. 



The donations to the Museum, during the past 

 year, have not been quite so numerous as on former 

 occasions, but nevertheless highly valuable ; the parti- 



