5 
those who are interested in the departments of science 
to which they refer. 
It will not, it is hoped, be thought too much to say 
with reference to the above circumstance, that it con- 
stitutes a noteworthy epoch in the history of your 
Society, and augurs well for its future prosperity. 
On Easter Monday, the Museum, according to custom, 
was thrown open to the public, at a nominal charge for 
admission; and a large attendance of visitors, chiefly 
of the working classes, was, as usual, the result. 
Several important changes have lately been effected 
in the internal arrangements of the Museum, due, in a 
at measure, to the active and friendly co-operation 
of the Naturalists’ Field Club with your Society. The 
offer made by some members of the former body, and 
referred to in our last report, is in course of 
being carried out, in a manner, which is not 
only highly creditable to those concerned 
in its execution, but which will also materially increase 
the value and interest of your collections by render- 
ing them more accessible for inspection and reference 
than they have been heretofore, 
The naming and arranging of the local shells is 
now completed. A few rare species in which the col- 
lection is as yet deficient will be supplied hereafter. 
The fossils are all named, but are not yet set ont in 
the new cases recently ordered for them. A large col- 
lection of plants in your possession—a bequest of the 
late Mr, William Thompson—has been named. 
The coins are also fully described, and have been 
arranged in the spezial case set apart for their exhibi- 
tion. The classification and arrangement of the remain- 
ing objects in the Museum is progressing satisfactorily. 
a order to render the improvements in progress as 
effective as the means at their disposal permit, your 
Council have expended £100 in the purchase of 
additional mahogany cases for shells, fossils, &c, 
Ten of the new cases, and also a case for the col- 
lection of plants, have been placed in the lower front 
room. 
The Museum building continues in good repair; the 
only outlay of moment required to preserve it in that 
condition having been for the re-glazing of the domes. 
Your trustees, taking into account the increased value 
both of the building itself and of its contents, have 
ordered anincrease in the amount for which the property 
isinsured, During the past winter the use of rooms in 
the Museum has been granted to the Ladies’ Institute 
ee St< 
