Annual Meeting. 5 



funds, as it was only with the most rigid economy they could 

 keep their expenditure within their income. A certain 

 member of the Society offered a donation of £10 to start a 

 substantial fund for this work, and his nephew took up the 

 matter energetically, and was able to raise a sum of money by 

 which the collection of birds would be entirely renovated and 

 a general rearrangement of the collections made, which would 

 bring them up to date, so that by the avoidance of unnecessary 

 duplications a large amount of space would be saved and room 

 made for other specimens. He thought attention should be 

 drawn to the matter, so that, in view of the approaching visit of 

 the British Association, they should have the place in as good 

 order as possible. He was afraid that owing to the generosity 

 of Sir Wm. Whitla, who was defraying the cost of the erection 

 of a Medical Institute, they would lose the Medical Society as 

 tenants, and consequently they would lose the rents which 

 that eminent and learned body had up to now paid to them. 

 He expressed the hope that there would be a general " beating 

 up " for new members and new shareholders, and that they 

 would not experience the discomforts of a diminished income, 

 which at the present moment was staring them in the face. 



The report was unanimously adopted. 



Mr. Patterson also mentioned a suggestion which had been 

 made to him as to the desirability of holding their meetings in 

 the afternoon instead of in the evening. This practice was 

 followed in London and many other places. 



Several members spoke against such a change being made, 

 and, as the feeling of the meeting was evidently against it, the 

 suggestion was not adopted. 



Mr. Wm. Gray proposed that Mr. Robert Patterson be 

 elected on the Council. He said that Mr. Robert Patterson was 

 a young man, who had inherited the traditions of his family in 

 the investigation of natural history, and he was one of the 

 most active and successful, as well as most modest, member of 

 their community. 



Mr. R. Young seconded the proposition. 



