TWENTY-THIRD REPORT, 



It is with regret that your Council, in presenting the 

 Twenty-third Annual Report, have to state, that the 

 operations of the Society during the past year, have 

 been very limited ; and seem to have consisted more 

 in matters of finance, than in Philosophical inquiry. 



It will be in the recollection of most Members, that 

 about six years ago, the Society incurred considerable 

 expense in making certain alterations in the Museum, 

 which the increased and increasing number and value 

 of their fossil and other treasures rendered absolutely 

 necessary. As the annual income of the Institution 

 is scarcely more than sufficient to meet the current 

 expenditure, the cost of these alterations and improve- 

 ments required to be otherwise provided for ; and the 

 Council for the time borrowed, for that purpose, a 

 sum of £80, from the late Mr. Corbishley, the then 

 Subcurator, on note at interest, to be repaid by instal- 

 ments, as circumstances might allow. In the early 

 part of this year, Mr. Corbishley died, and the Society 

 thereby lost an efficient officer, and a steady and con- 

 stant friend; whose kind and (of late years) gratuitous 

 services, deserve to be marked at this time with special 

 approbation. Soon after this much regretted event, 

 his executors demanded immediate payment of the 



