departments, is brought together ; and being 

 arranged in cases fitted to display the forms and 

 properties of the objects in each department, 

 the facility of inspection is much increased. The 

 shutting up of nearly the whole in glass cases, 

 may indeed be regarded, as impeding the ex- 

 amination of those objects which were formerly 

 exposed to the touch ; yet this advantage must 

 be more than counterbalanced, by the greater 

 security of the collections from the danger of 

 decomposition and other injuries. It was high 

 time, that our inestimable fossil, the great cro- 

 codile, and other organic remains, which lay 

 exposed in the former Museum, should be put 

 jn cases adapted for their preservation; that they 

 piay continue to excite the wonder, and gratify 

 the curiosity, of future ages. Without this pre^ 

 caution, a great proportion of our fossils from 

 the alum shale, must have perished in a few 

 years; and the whole of our vegetable impres- 

 sions on coal shale, of which we have now a large 

 and interesting collection, would have been 

 decomposed much sooner; several specimens 

 having already begun to shew the dangerous 

 effects of exposure to the atmosphere. 



The Council regret to observe, that there are 

 ^till several portions of the Society's property 

 for which no sufficient cases have yet been pro- 

 cured ; particularly the collection of Birds, which 

 js still increasing; the specimens of Works of 



