PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 311 



in the opposite cases, of dullness, and a tardier intellectual develop- 

 ment. Some very important observations on the clothing of the 

 young of both sexes were offered ; and the lecture concluded with a 

 brief review of the principal features comprehended by the subject 

 of physical education, as treated of upon the present occasion. 



At a subsequent meeting of the members of the Institution, Mr. 

 C. Hale delivered a lecture on the Natural History^ of the Salmon, 

 which proved highly interesting, from the number of important 

 facts and piscatorial anecdotes with which it was interspersed. Dis- 

 claiming, in his introduction, all pretensions to originality on a sub- 

 ject which had been already so ably treated of in many published 

 works upon the subject, and to several of which he referred for 

 those scientilic details unnecessary in such a popular view as he 

 then proposed bringing before the meeting, Mr. Hale took the evi- 

 dence given in the Parliamentary Report upon our Salmon Fish- 

 eries as the basis of his discourse ; and treated successively of the 

 peculiar habits and instincts of this fish, the seasons of its visiting 

 our bays and rivers, and the methods of catching pursued in diffe- 

 rent countries, many of which were highly curious. He also in- 

 quired into the causes of the superior flavour for which the salmon 

 of certain rivers had ever been celebrated, particularly those of the 

 Severn and the Thames ; the reasons of the annually increasing 

 scarcity of the fish, and the consequent increase of price : in short, 

 the lecturer touched upon all those points best adapted to afford 

 pleasing information to his audience, without dwelling too long or 

 too minutely upon any one in particular. 



Mr. Wilderspin has delivered two lectures on Infant Education : 

 in the first he took a review of the rise and progress of the system, 

 and discussed, with his accustomed ability and address, several of its 

 leading principles and modes of instruction. The graver portions 

 of the lecture were enlivened with a variety of highly interesting 

 anecdotes, illustrative of the views propounded and explained. In 

 the second the able and benevolent lecturer resumed the considera- 

 tion of his subject, and explained the methods adopted in training 

 the minds of his juvenile scholars to a right apprehension of the 

 principles of virtue, and the moral obligations of society. He also 

 further developed the working of the system in its connexion with 

 the duties and objects of education ; and concluded a most highly 

 interesting and instructive lecture by some valuable hints to parents 

 and instructors generally. 



Considerable interest was excited by the discourse delivered by 

 Dr. Boisragon, the president of the Institution, " On the Progress of 

 Physical Science, with some considerations on the Doctrine of Final 

 Causes, with the Relation of Man to the Material World." An ela- 

 borate and eloquent introduction, in which the full scope and objects 

 of the discourse were beautifully explained, presented the learned 

 president an opportunity of glancing at the nature of the evidence 

 afforded by the ruins of primeval creation, in illustration of the doc- 

 trine of final causes, and of rapidly reviewing the state of physical 



