13 
and equipped at a cost of some £25,000, without any burden 
on the rates of the City, its possession by the Citizens will, 
I feel sure, be fully appreciated by them, and looked upon 
as a legacy worth possessing. The value of it as a local 
University is proved by the fact that the number of students 
who actually pass through the various classes average more 
than a thousand per annum; added to which is the member- 
ship of our own . ociety, including the membership of the 
Archeological Society ; and if you include the Paxton Society, 
whose head-quarters are also here, you get somewhere about 
3,000 names associated with the Institution. It is to the 
munificence of the late DUKE OF WESTMINSTER and other 
leading Citizens that the erection of the structure is due. 
It is to the enthusiasm and self-sacrifice of many others who 
have, year in and year out, carried on the excellent work to 
whom Chester will ever be indebted. But if the City has 
been morally and intellectually better for all this work, it will 
not have been done in vain. 

SCIENTIFIC REPORT. 
Tue Society has passed through another year of steady 
progress in the Natural Sciences, and has again established 
a record in the number of its Members. This very neces- 
sary feature, the growth in numerical strength, may some- 
times suggest a possibility of quantity increasing rather than 
quality; but in this connection it is well to remember that 
when the Society only totalled some 300 Members, Charles 
Kingsley, who was then its President, openly deplored the 
small percentage of actual workers it contained. It is 
always difficult to apply any reliable test in this matter, as 
much valuable work is done quietly; but a review of the 
solid results accomplished during the past twelve months 
suggests a favourable comparison with any year since the 
Society’s foundation. 
Conspicuous amongst the achievements of the year is 
the steady development of the Society’s Museum, the newer 
exhibits including Mr. Alfred Newstead’s Case illustrating 
the life-history of the Cuckoo, and many interesting 
additions to the collections of Lepidoptera, &c., made by 
our leading entomologists. 
