248 ANNNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 



the great need of the special fund, the contributions to which 

 were so general, and in several instances so handsome. Since 

 the close of the financial year a heavy outlay has been incurred 

 on outside repairs in plastering and painting, which could not 

 be longer delayed. The exterior is not likely to cause further 

 expense for some time to come, but the rooms within and the 

 cases in the Museum are in great need of renovation. The 

 admissions to the Museum during the year were as follows : — 

 Admitted free, 2,126; by ticket, 115; by payment (6d.), 352. 

 Total, 2,593, shewing some increase under each head. The 

 charge for printing above referred to was of course exceptional, 

 belonging, as it did, in great part to several preceding years. 

 Still the cost of the Journal must at all times be considerable, 

 even if the editor, as now, through the kindness of Mr. Michell 

 Whitley, be unsalaried. But it ought to be borne in mind that 

 this publication is the chief return made to the members 

 generally for their subscription, and the principal vehicle by 

 which we can add to existing knowledge on our particular 

 subjects of inquiry. Judging from the experience of recent 

 years, a sufficient supply of valuable and interesting papers for 

 two yearly numbers may be counted on. To glance at those 

 most recently issued : — the thanks of the institution are especially 

 due to our veteran zoologist, Mr. Peach, for his painstaking 

 and very interesting supplement to R. Q. Couch's monograph on 

 our zoophytes published by us in 1844; and to The Rev. W. 

 lago we are greatly indebted for his account of Rustyn Barrow, 

 and his communication on Cornish seals, still awaiting com- 

 pletion : and we owe to Mr. Michell Whitley an exhaustive 

 memoir on the church goods of Cornwall at the time of the 

 Reformation. The shorter notices, such as that on the Quethiock 

 Cross, describe a class of local antiquities on which we are 

 most desirous to invite research and descriptive communications 

 for the journal. One of the means of usefulness which the 

 Institution possesses is its library, now comprising, mainly 

 through exchanges of publications with other societies, a good 

 collection of scientific transactions, of much value to the local 

 student, to whom the great libraries are but rarely available. 

 It is also desirable that all the leading histories and other works 

 of acknowledged merit concerning Cornwall should be found on 



