6 PREFACE. 



as a visitor by his relative Dr. Peter Mainwaring, and 

 that his name may have been inserted among the members 

 in error. 



Treating this as the correct explanation, a very interest- 

 ing group of men is found who can be regarded, without 

 hesitation, as the originators of the Society. Their names 

 are given at the end of this preface. 



The names in the subjoined list are placed in alphabetical 

 order, as it thus best serves the purpose of an index. For 

 other purposes, the arrangement by priority of election might 

 be better, the founders would then head the list, and the new 

 members in successive years would follow. This method 

 would shew, among other things, the rise and fall in the 

 recruiting of the Society, and, to some extent, the changes in 

 the recruiting ground. Even as it stands, the preparation 

 of the list has made manifest to how great an extent the 

 personal constitution of the Society has been modified, and 

 even transformed, by the growth of the town and the tendency 

 to live at greater distances from its centre. And it seems 

 hardly less than certain that, in process of time, the effect 

 would have been to cause the extinction of the Society had it 

 not been, to some extent, counterbalanced by the growth of 

 educational establishments and the increasing demand for 

 scientific experts in the different industries of the district. 

 The consequence has been that while the number of members 

 professionally engaged in scientific pursuits, either as investi- 

 gators or teachers, has increased, there is a considerably 

 smaller number of members engaged in business who either 

 possess a taste for scientific knowledge themselves or are 

 desirous of encouraging others in its pursuit. Considering 

 the debt which Manchester owes to scientific progress gene- 

 rally, and to the scientific work of members of this Society in 

 particular, this cannot fail to be a matter of regret. More- 

 over, a portion of the plain intention of the founders is thus 

 being defeated, and the Society has suffered partly by the 

 reduction of its immediate sphere of influence, and partly 



