GREENOCK PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



for SO kindly giving their services and lanterns in connection with 

 these exhibitions. 



At last Annual Meeting it was remitted to Mr. T. L. Patterson 

 and the Secretary to take steps for improving the acoustics of the 

 Lecture Hall. In accordance with their recommendation horizontal 

 rows of woollen braid have been tacked on the walls at intervals of a 

 yard, as being a likely and inexpensive method of damping the 

 sound. 



The attention of the Committee having recently been directed 

 to the terms of the late Mr. James M'Lean's will, as quoted in the 

 Synopsis of the Society's Froceedi?tgs, especially with respect to the 

 testator's direction to his trustees to expend part of the income of 

 the trust in defraying the cost of lectures, it was remitted to a sub- 

 committee — consisting of the President, Mr. George Macdonald, 

 and Mr. John Rodger — to look into the matter and report. Having 

 investigated the matter, they reported that there was no doubt, in 

 their opinion, that, by the terms of Mr. M'Lean's will, the trustees 

 were bound to expend a share of the annual income of the residue of 

 the estate in providing lectures, to be delivered in the Society's Hall. 

 It had, however, been explained to them that the income at the 

 disposal of the trustees was at present limited, that a discretionary 

 power had been vested in the trustees by Mr. M'Lean in regard to 

 the distribution of the funds, and that the Museum and the Library 

 were considered by the trustees more necessitous than this Society. 

 The trustees, through their law-agent, had expressed themselves as 

 willing to consider the claim of the Society, as soon as they were in 

 possession of increased funds, which they expected when the present 

 annuities payable by the trust fell in. The Committee, in view of 

 the information received from Mr. M'Lean's trustees, recommend 

 that matters be allowed to remain as at present — looking particularly 

 to the knowledge on the part of the Philosophical Society that the 

 Museum Committee were still greatly in need of funds. At the same 

 time, in order to keep the claim of the Society to a share of the 

 residue of Mr. M'Lean's estate before the trustees, they further 

 recommend that the Secretary be instructed to write the trustees, 

 referring to the interview of the Committee with their law-agent, and 

 informing them that the Society was not disposed at present to press 

 the claim it had, but reserved to itself to put it forward at any time 



