PROCKEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 157 



the Museum, which from the daily acquisition of specimens in every 

 department of Natural History is now become indispensable, will 

 speedily be raised. 



The course of Lectures commenced on the 29th of September, 

 with an extremely interesting "History of Comets, their appearances, 

 the phenomena to which they give rise, the nature of Comets in ge. 

 neral, and an examination of the hypotheses respecting them," by the 

 Rev. Thomas Webb ; which will be followed by Lectures "' On the 

 Fine Arts of Ancient Greece, and their Moral Effects on Civiliza- 

 tion, by H. C. Boisragon, M D. ;" " On the Powers of Instinct and 

 Reason displayed in the Animal Kingdom, by J. H. Walsh, Esq. ;" 

 '* On the Upper Strata of the Secondary and on the Tertiary Rocks, 

 with a general description of their attendant Fossils, by E. Morris, 

 Esq." and the Session for the present season will conclude on the 1st 

 of December, with a general Meeting for the reading of various in 

 teresting scientific Papers. 



SHROPSHIRE AND NORTH WALES NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETY. 



Well and wisely has the great Magician of the North somewhere 

 observed, that " the Book of Nature, that noblest of volumes, al- 

 ways lies open before us, where we are ever called to wonder and 

 to admire, even where we cannot understand." Deeply sensible of 

 the truth and beauty of this sentiment, and fully aware of the vast 

 and beneficial effects which the well-directed study of the works of 

 creation invariably produces on the moral and intellectual improve- 

 ment of Society, we contemplate, with feelings of high gratification, 

 the formation, in almost every portion of this enlightened kingdom, 

 of Societies having for their immediate object the diffusion and 

 cultivation of Natural Knowledge. 



Amongst other recent institutions of this kind we are happy to 

 announce the establishment of a Natural History Society in the 

 adjacent county of Salop, of which the prospectus and rules are now 

 before us, and from which we propose to present to our readers a 

 condensed statement of the benefits contemplated, and likely to arise 

 from its formation. 



The Society is entitled "the Shropshire and North Wales 

 Natural History Society," and has for its object the formation of a 

 Museum and Scientific Library of Natural History, Antiquities, &c. 

 and the collection, from every quarter, of accurate information re- 

 specting the Natural and General History of this important 

 District, — its topography, statistics, climate, and meteorological 

 phenomena ; its geological structure, mineral and organic fossils ; 

 its mines and collieries; its various animal and vegetable pro- 

 ductions. 



