xvi Address of Mr J. W. Clark, President, 



being other Museums in the University devoted to these departments, 

 they have received less of its attention than the Zoological part of the 

 Museum above noticed. There are also a few antiquities, some of 

 which were obtained in the county. 



The Society's house had been built, to a great extent, with 

 borrowed money, as I have related, and it had cost a far larger sum 

 than had been anticipated. It was possible to pay the interest on 

 the loans, but the Society found itself unable to establish a sinking- 

 fund for the repayment of the capital. Moreover, the number of 

 Fellows gradually decreased. At one time it was usual for nearly 

 every Fellow of a College to become a Fellow of the Philosophical 

 Society ; but. when the novelty of the existence of such a body 

 in Cambridge had worn off, and when the reading-room had 

 several rivals, not to mention the reduction of the price of news- 

 papers, which enabled them to be taken in at home — there seemed 

 to be no special reason for joining a Society where the papers read 

 were chiefly mathematical, and which offered no other attractions 

 not to be found elsewhere. The officers of the Society did their 

 best in these adverse days ; and some of those who had lent money 

 cancelled their bonds — as for instance Professor Peacock, Professor 

 Sedgwick, Professor Adams, and Professor Babington; but the 

 financial difficulty could not be overcome. Finally, in 1865, the 

 Museum was offered to, and accepted by, the University 1 ; the 

 house was sold ; and the Society found a home at the New 

 Museums 2 . 



In this brief review I have of necessity omitted much that 

 I should have been glad to record, had I not determined to write 

 a sketch and not a history. I cannot, however, conclude without 

 drawing attention to our publications. No one, I think, can look 

 through the volumes of Transactions and Proceedings without 

 admitting that the papers therein printed or abstracted will hold 

 their own in originality and value against those of almost any 

 society. The Proceedings, as you are aware, do not begin before 

 1843. I have therefore appended to this paper brief notices of 

 the communications made before that date, as recorded in the 

 Minute Book. These will, I feel sure, be found interesting. They 

 show what some of the best men in the place were working at ; 

 and they testify to the genuine interest taken by them in the 

 Society. Whatever they did, they hastened to communicate it, 

 though, to our great loss, they too often neglected to prepare their 

 work for our Transactions. I have also prepared a list of the 

 Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurers, from the beginning to the 

 present time. 



1 Grace, 24 May, 1865. 2 Grace, 8 June, 1865. 



