10 Nicholson, Inaugural Address. 



and the manuscript lists were very brief, but Dr. Thomas 

 Ashton prepared a useful popular guide entitled "Visits to 

 the Museum of the Manchester Natural History Society," 

 printed in 1856, and several times reissued. 



In 1849 a valuation of the collection was made, and I 

 possess a copy of it in Captain Brown's handwriting. 

 The furniture and books were valued at ;^686 iis. lod., 

 the showcases at £i,6jo 4s. od., and the collection at 

 ^^5,042 IIS. id., the total value, excluding the buildings 

 being ^7,399 6s. iid. Another valuation was made in 

 1 861, and the value of the collection had increased only 

 by i^i,228 13s. lod., the Geological Society's collection 

 being responsible for ^600 of this increase. 



On the 13th November, 1867, a special meeting of 

 Governors agreed to the dissolution of the Society as from 

 the date of the next annual meeting, 29th January, i868> 

 and on the 8th January Commissioners were appointed 

 to wind up affairs and to transfer the property to the 

 Owens College on the terms already mentioned. 



The Museum was closed as a public institution in 

 1868, but the collections, or portions of them, were still 

 available for the use of students from that date to i890> 

 when the present Museum was opened. Of the specimens 

 some regarded as useless were sold by auction, a few were 

 given to other museums, and the local antiquities were 

 transferred to the British Museum. The neglect, due 

 primarily to the impecuniosity of the Societ}^ in its later 

 years, had resulted in many of the specimens of birds and 

 mammals becoming moth-eaten and of insects becoming 

 faded. A great number of the specimens had thus to be 

 discarded. The rarer specimens were retained and by 

 judicious treatment made suitable for exhibition, and are 

 now in the Museum. But in one way and another the 

 collection had become so reduced that the University 



