Annual Report of the Council. xxi. 



MANCHESTER 

 LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



Annual Report of the Council, April, IQIQ- 



The Society had at the beginning of the Session an ordinary 

 membership of 145. Since then nine new members have joined 

 the Society, seven members have resigned, and two members have 

 died. There are, therefore, at the end of the session, 145 ordinary 

 members of the Society. 



By the death on March 28th of Dr. Henry Wilde, D.C.L., D.Sc, 

 F.R.S., the Society has sustained the loss of its oldest member and 

 most munificent benefactor. 



Fifteen papers have been read at the meetings during the 

 year ; four shorter communications have also been made. 



A Joule Centenary Meeting was held on January 7th, 1919 

 when Professor Sir Ernest Ruiherford, gave an address on " The 

 Work and Influence of Joule, "and Professor W.W.Hald.a.ne Gee 

 described some of the principal pieces of apparatus used by Joule in 

 his researches and exhibited some of his original manuscri[)ts and 

 note books. 



On January 21st, 191 9, a Special Meeting of the Society was 

 held and a discussion took place on *'The means by which the 

 Society may promote most effectively the Advancement and 

 Application of Learning- in Manchester." 



Among the suggestions put forward by various speakers were 

 the following :— 



1. That while the Society should retain its present functions as a 



learned Society, its members might meet with others interested 

 in the advancement of Science for informal discussion in the 

 rooms of the Society. Such gatherings might be held in the 

 middle of the day or in the evenings, and light refreshments 

 should be obtainable on these occasions. 



2. That special lectures, by eminent men, on scientific subjects 



of general interest should be arranged from time to time. 



