1887-1888.] 3 1 



The next organisation, in point of time, to which reference 

 may be made, is the Natural History and Philosophical Society. 



The origin and history of this Society formed the subject of 

 the Presidential Address delivered by Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson, 

 to its members on 1st November, i88t, which was the fiftieth 

 anniversary of the opening of its Museum. Mr. Patterson's 

 comprehensive address covered the ground so completely that 

 nothing worthy of note can be added to it. But in the case of 

 a Society whose objects are so similar to our own, and whose 

 Museum was the first erected in Ireland by voluntary subscrip- 

 tion, any historical sketch of scientific progress in Belfast would 

 be incomplete without reference to it. From the address to 

 which I refer I take mainly the following particulars. It 

 appears that at a meeting, held in the house of Dr. Drummond, 

 on 5th June, 1821, he and seven other gentlemen, viz., 

 Messrs. William M'Clure, jun., George C. Hyndman, James 

 Grimshaw, jun., Francis Archer, James M'Adam, jun., Robert 

 Patterson, jun., and Robert Simms, jun., resolved to form 

 themselves into the Belfast Natural History Society. Dr. 

 Drummond was elected President ; rules" were adopted, and 

 thenceforward meetings were held once a fortnight in Dr. 

 Drummond's house until October, 1822. At that date 

 accommodation was found for the Society in the Academical 

 Institution, until in the following year rooms were taken 

 in the Commercial Buildings, where the meetings con- 

 tinued to be held until the erection of the Museum in which 

 we now are, and in which rooms the nucleus of the present 

 collections was formed. The progress of the Society was such 

 that the members began to experience inconvenience, both 

 from the smallness of the meeting-room and the crowded state 

 of their Museum. This inconvenience increased until they 



Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge," has been published by our esteemed 

 fellow-member, Mr. John Anderson, J.P., F.G.S. From this work I learn that much 

 was done by that Society, in its earlier years, to advance the study of Natural Science. 

 Soon after its establishment in 1788, a geological collection was formed, and in 1793 

 Mr. John Templeton was appointed to superintend the Botanical part of the Institu- 

 tion, and to take charge of Dickson's collection of dried plants " until he can get them 

 properly secured in their places. n 



