404 



The affording facilities for such intellectual intercourse between 

 those who are engaged either upon the same or upon different 

 branches of science, and the promotion of this generous, brotherly 

 co-operation, is, I believe, in the present state of society, the most 

 important purpose, and the most beneficial result of scientific insti- 

 tutions such as that which I have the honour of addressing. 



The Council have, in the last year, acted as if they felt the 

 force of some of these considerations. They have made the next 

 apartment complete in everything that can conduce to the comfort 

 of the Fellows who visit it, either for reading, writing, or consulta- 

 tion ; and, situated as we are, at the very centre of our principal 

 thoroughfare, they may, I think, be disappointed that so few of our 

 members appear as yet to avail themselves of the accommodation 

 afforded them. But they have taken a much more important step 

 than this; they have devoted three hundred pounds, not from the 

 capital, but from the savings of the Society, to the increase of the 

 Libi'ary. Every department of science has been fairly represented in 

 the sub-committee appointed to expend this sum ; and if the Natu- 

 ralists have carried off the lion's share in the distribution, this has 

 arisen from no unfair preference, but from the great expensiveness 

 of their necessary apparatus. A tolerably extensive library of 

 mathematics or philology may be purchased at the price of a single 

 publication on shells or ferns. In the geographical department our 

 collection is eminently rich. We possess, and have mounted in a 

 new and very serviceable manner, maps to the amount of 625 sheets. 

 Of these 439 relate to Europe, and 78 to Asia ; and many are 

 from elaborate surveys, and on a large scale. The Council 

 has also been busily employed during a great portion of the 

 year in preparing a Catalogue of the Librai'y. The completion of 

 this has unavoidably been impeded by the gradual accession of 

 additional books ; but it is hoped that in the course of the present 

 session, or of the succeeding summer, a complete and well-arranged 

 Catalogue will be accessible to the Members of the Society ; and that 

 from it the students of every branch of science will learn that valu- 

 able contributions to their favourite branch, whatever it may be, 

 have been recently made, with an especial view to the supply of 

 works of reference, which were not to be found in the great public 

 libraries of this city. It may not be uninteresting to the literary 

 members to know that a considerable number of Dictionaries, Gram- 



