The only Essay or Lecture which has been 

 read before the Society during the past year, 

 was one by Dr. Merryweather, descriptive of his 

 ingenious " Tempest Prognosticator,'' which has 

 been exhibited to the world in the Crystal Palace 

 in London, and which has since been further 

 honoured by a request, that Dr. Merryweather 

 would allow it to be exhibited in the apartments 

 of the Society of Arts ; where no doubt its real 

 merits will be fairly tested and acknowledged. 



The painful duty of recording the decease since 

 the last annual meeting of two useful and respec- 

 ted Members of the Society, devolves upon your 

 Council. Mr. John Ripley and his Nephew, Dr. 

 Robert Ripley, have been removed from the scene 

 of their earthly labours. They had both con- 

 tributed Essays or Lectures to the Society, and 

 the loss of such members cannot but be felt and 

 deplored. 



The intention of the original promoters of your 

 Institution, was to make it subservient to the 

 acquisition and communication of knowledge, 

 and this object has been realized to some 

 extent; but your Council have still to regret 

 that little has of late years been done by 

 many of the Members, whose literary and scien- 

 tific attainments had encouraged the expect- 



