18 



Ml-. Alfred Higginson exhibited a volume of the " Manchester 

 Magazine," a newspaper of date 1742-43, and read various extracts, 

 chiefly in relation to the connexion between Manchester and Liverpool. 

 Also, the " Chronicle of the Queen of Hungary, with the mighty acts 

 of George King of England, at the battle of Dettingen, and King 

 George's Psalm of Thanksgiving for the victory over his and her 

 enemies, written in the manner of the Jewish historians, by Abram 

 Ben Saddi, brother to Nathan the Jew" — no date. 



The Rev. John Eobberds exhibited an impression of a betrothal 

 seal (ring) of the time of Edward II., found at Bridgewater, in August 

 last. The device consisted of two heads in profile, face to face, with 

 the motto, Je sv sel d'amour lei. 



Mr. T. C. Archer exhibited a specimen of pottery, made by the 

 Indians on the banks of the Amazon, and which was common in Para. 

 The bark was stripped from a tree, a species of cryso-balanaceous 

 plant, or hog-plum, which was then burned, its ashes mixed with the 

 liver mud, and clay thus formed. He also showed a specimen of tea 

 made from coffee leaves, in taste not unlike some of our best congous. 

 The theine was larger in quantity than in tea from Assam or China. 

 He likewise referred to an American diving machine, called the 

 Nautilus, which was constructed on simple but truly scientific prin- 

 ciples. 



Bessemer's mode of manufacturing iron was made the topic of 

 conversation ; after which the following Address was read : — 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

 By THOMAS INMAN, Esq., M.D.Lond., President:— 

 Gentlemen, — In accepting the office to which your confidence has 

 elected me, my first duty is to express my sense of the honour you 

 have conferred, and my earnest wish to show myself worthy of your 

 suffrages. The selection of an individual for your president is the 

 highest token of esteem it is in your power to bestow ; and it is not 

 without a sensation of pride that I find myself in a chair which has 

 previously been occupied by so many distinguished men. Yet there 

 are few gratifications that have not a dash in them of the bitter, and 

 my next impulse, after returning you my thanks, is to frame a sort of 

 apology for that love of science which is commonly prejudicial to all 

 professional men. To the generality of people whose chief occupation 

 is money getting, and whose relaxations are good living, gossip, news- 

 papers, and cards, it seems incredible that any one could feel enjoy- 

 ment in what to themselves would be nothing but dreary dulness, or 

 a task of mind they feel unequal to grapple with. They imagine a 



