PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 105 



of science, we cannot but feel that it is entitled to a much larger 

 share of support, by annual subscription, than it has hitherto re- 

 ceived. It is open gratuitously to all strangers bearing a member's 

 order, and to all residents accompanied by a member ; but as com- 

 plaints have been made as to the inconvenience of this system, ad- 

 mission may now be obtained by the payment of one shilling — a re- 

 gulation made by way of trial. Those who can procure a member's 

 order are still admitted without payment. About £65 was received 

 during the year from the shilling tickets, and those who obtained 

 admission by payment did not form a third of the strangers who 

 visited the museum. The same arrangement is continued for the 

 current year. 



DONCASTER LYCEUM. 



It is with much regret that we notice the undue attention paid 

 by this Society to Politics, which we think should be wholly ex- 

 cluded from such institutions. Politics require no further encou- 

 ragement than is most amply afforded by the newspapers and 

 political magazines ; but to excite a taste for science and literature, 

 great and continued exertions are needed. Let us not be mistaken. 

 We are most desirous that useful knowledge should be communicated 

 to the people in every possible manner; and amongst these subjects 

 politics ought to obtain a considerable share of attention. But when 

 we see tradesmen enter a scientific and literary society solely with 

 the view of reading a large number of newspapers for a small sum 

 of money, to this perversion of the objects of the institution we most 

 decidedly object. £20 per annum is spent in this ephemeral 

 literature at the Lyceum, and some of the quarterly members* are 

 actually desirous of increasing the number of papers. As the 

 Society wishes to expend some portion of its funds in newspapers. 

 Dr. Ferguson Branson facetiously moved, at one of the meetings, 

 that one penny per annum be dedicated to this purpose, a motion 

 which receives our hearty approval. A petition against the abuse 

 we are noticing has been drawn up, and very numerously and 

 respectably signed, and we suspect, that if the error is persisted in, 

 the Society will lose many of its more influential members, who, 

 well aware of the real interests of such an institution, will naturally 

 feel averse to giving it their countenance and support after so gross 

 a perversion of its rational aim and objects. — Another subject we 

 find it our duty to expose, is the delivery of a lecture on nutrition 

 and digestion, by Mr. J. E. Morey, Surgeon, of Doncaster, the 

 greater part of which was copied verbatim from one of Dr. Combe's 



* It will be remembered, that in our last report of the I^yceum, we observed 

 that the subscription of the annual members is £1 ; that of the quarterly 



members, 10s Eds. 



VOL. VI. NO. XIX. O 



