‘~ % 
be SER 
INTRODUCTION. 
CONTAINING 
An Account of various Topics of Experiment and 
Obfervation, which have engaged the Attention 
of this Society fince the Publication of the laft 
Volume. 
[By the SECRETARY.] 
IX a period of publick affairs fo peculiar as the prefent, in 
which the minds of men of all ranks have been con- 
ftantly occupied, if not agitated, with political refleftions ; 
it is not wonderful that the correfpondence of a provincial 
fociety fhould have been lefs abundant than, from its in- 
creafing numbers, might have been otherwife expected.— 
This having been really the cafe, a confequent delay, fome- 
what beyond the ufual period, has attended the publication 
of this Ninth Volume. But the moft active members of 
the fociety, ftrongly defirous of promoting that general ufe- 
fulnefs which may be expected from the efforts of fuch an 
aflociated body, have felt a proportionate folicitude on 
this fubject. | 
The humble writer of the following introductory pages, 
feeling as he does the refponfibility of his fituation, has not 
been one of the leaft defirous to make fuch an arrangement 
‘VOL, IX. a of 
