II. SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT. 



1. MUSBUM. 



Under the present circumstances of the Society, par- 

 ticularly as regards the unsettled state of the Museum 

 question, the Council do not feel it necessary to enter into 

 any detailed statements on this head. A Committee was 

 appointed in the early part of last year to consider the 

 whole subject ; and their final Report, lately presented to 

 the Council, embodies the result of their labours, and will 

 be laid before the Society at large as soon as certain in- 

 quiries therein suggested, and still pending, shall have 

 been brought to a conclusion. During the progress of 

 their inquiries, they judged it necessary to recommend to 

 the Council the expediency of ordering a valuation of the 

 preserved Collections to be made for the information and 

 guidance of the Society in arriving at a proper judgment 

 on the important question of their final disposition. This 

 was accordingly done by two of the most competent gen- 

 tlemen whom the Council could select for that purpose, 

 and who have returned a detailed valuation of the several 

 classes of specimens preserved in the Museum, amount- 

 ing in the whole to the sum of £10,965. 



The state of the premises in Leicester Square, occa- 

 sioned by the pulling down of the adjoining houses, in 

 addition to other inconveniences attached to them as a 

 depository for so valuable a Collection, determined the 

 Council to take advantage of the covenant in their lease, 

 by which they were empowered to determine the tenancy 

 at Lady-day last; but owing to the still unsettled state of 

 the Museum question, they have concluded a fresh ar- 

 rangement for retaining possession of the inhabitable part 

 till Midsummer next, by which time it is hoped that this 

 subject will have been finally disposed of, and the Council 

 will then be at liberty to provide permanent accommoda- 

 tion for carrying on the ordinary business of the Society. 

 In the meantime, the Collections have been removed to 

 a warehouse in Dufour's Place, Broad Street, Golden 



