4 Nicholson, Inaugural Address. 



built, and the cost of the curator's salary and of general 

 maintenance had to be met. 



The subscriptions showed a general tendenc}'to shrink, 

 and as old members died or resigned there was difficulty in 

 replacing them. While this process was going on the use 

 of the Museum by the general public was increasing. In 

 1863, when the public were admitted at one shilling and 

 working people at threepence, and the price of tickets on 

 Saturday was only twopence, the income from casual 

 visitors was £12% lis. id., while the subscription income 

 of £'^60 1 8s. 9d. was much less than half of the subscrip- 

 tion income in the Society's palmy days. 



Ill 1853, when a request for the free admission of the 

 Owens College men was made to the Council, they were 

 offered non-transferable tickets at five shillings per annum, 

 an offer which was accepted. 



The curators of the Museum were all men of dis- 

 tinction. The first curator was W. C. Williamson, appointed 

 in 1835, shortly after the removal to Peter Street. Mr. 

 Williamson was, of course, a very young man at this time. 

 In later years he attained great distinction as a scientific 

 man, and there is a long and appreciative notice of him 

 in the " Dictionary of National Biography." 



The next curator, appointed in 1839, was Captain 

 Thomas Brown, a good all-round naturalist for those days, 

 with a specialist's knowledge of conchology, fossil and 

 recent. On conchology he produced several important 

 works. He wrote a number of popular books on natural 

 history ; he was author of a " Taxidermist's Manual " which 

 passed through twenty-one editions, and he edited one of 

 the better editions of White's " Selborne." He was born at 

 Perth in 1785, and owed his title of Captain to the position 

 he had held in the Forfar and Kincardine Militia. His 

 regiment was at one time stationed in Manchester, a fact 



