Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 213 



posers ; and the conclusion arrived at, that water is by far the most 

 favourable. After this, the efFect of increased pressure on the 

 vapour was considered, and the probable advantages which might 

 be philosophically deduced, independent of practice, were set forth. 



YORKSHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND NEW MUSEUM. 

 Annual Meeting of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and Opening 

 of the New Museum. 

 The anniversary meetingof the Yorkshire Philosophical Society was 

 held February 2, for the first time, in the Theatre of the New Museum, 

 The Yorkshire Museum stands in an enclosure of about three 

 acres, part of the site of the once rich and powerful Abbey of St. 

 Mary*, which, since the Dissolution, has been the property of the 

 Crown, and was munificently granted by His present Majesty in 1827, 

 to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. The venerable ruins of the 

 Abbey occupy the north-western side of the enclosure ; the Roman 

 multangular tower and ancient city walls separate it from the city to 

 the south-east. On an eminence in the centre, the Museum rears its 

 noble front, looking down upon the river, and to the extensive land- 

 scape beyond. The entrance to the grounds from the city is by a 

 Doric gateway, or propylaeum. On either side of the walk leading 

 thence to the Museum,' the ground is appropriated to a Botanic 

 Garden. The remainder of the enclosure is laid out and planted with 

 a view to picturesque embellishment,— and with particular reference 

 to the favourable display of the venerable remains of antiquity which 

 adorn and consecrate the ground. 



The front of the Museum extends 102 feet, and was designed by 

 W. Wilkins, Esq., RA. On the right of the hall is the library. A 

 door on the left of the library leads to the staircase and council-room. 

 Directly opposite the front door, corresponding folding doors lead 

 into the theatre or lecture-roorn, a beautiful room, ornamented by six 

 Corinthian columns, and four pilasters supporting beams enriched by 

 guilloche ornaments. On the right and left of the lecture-room are 

 spacious apartments, for the collections in geology and mineralogy j 

 the former containing a suite of nearly ten thousand specimens of 

 British rocks and fossils, arranged in the order of their position in the 

 earth; the latter exhibiting above two thousand minerals, classed 

 according to their chemical relations. At the back of tlie lecture- 

 room, and connecting the two lateral rooms, is the museum for 

 zoology. 



The chair was taken by the President, the Rev. W. V. Vernon, 

 who said, he regretted that he had to apologize for the absence of the 

 Archbishop, who would not have been prevented from attending by 

 any thing but a severe, though he trusted temporary indisposition. 



He then read the Report of the Council, of which the following is 

 an abstract. 



• A highly interesting liistory and dcscri|)tioii of tliis al)bcy, the remains 

 of which have lately been excavated, arc |)iihlihlicd hy the Rev. C. Well- 

 bciovcd, Curator of Antiquities to the Society, in the " Vctusta Monii- 

 meiita," vol. v. of the Society of Anti(|uiiries of London. 



The 



