which, by February, 1839, £Z C0 na d keen subscribed. Subscrip- 

 tions seem, however, to have come in but slowly, for in February, 

 1840, some reductions of expense in the erection of the projected 

 new building were discussed. The following month sees the 

 scheme again before the public, a circular respecting it, and 

 bearing the names of three prominent members of the society, 

 having been issued. The project seemed after this to lie in 

 abeyance for several years, till March, 1844, when it was revived, 

 and another circular on the subject appears in February, 1845 ; 

 but at the annual meeting held on 13th May, 1846, the report 

 stated that the views of the council had been modified by cir- 

 cumstances, and the council recommended instead that the 

 large upper room be fitted up for the reception of cases and 

 specimens. The report submitted to the annual meeting in 1 847 

 stated that, owing to the " distressing calamities " under which 

 the country was suffering, no progress had been made ; and it 

 was not till 1850 (although frequent allusions to the subject 

 appear in the interim) that the fitting of the upper room was 

 definitely decided on, and ordered to be completed before the 

 next session opened. This was done ; and accordingly in that 

 year, 1850, the upper room was fitted up in the manner in which, 

 with some minor changes, you still see it. 



The idea of inviting the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science to hold its annual meeting in Belfast, which it 

 did in 1852, was first publicly mooted at a conversazione held in 

 the Museum on 16th January, 1849, and the invitation was 

 given at the meeting of the association in Birmingham that 

 year. 



Nothing of special moment occurred in the society till 1852, 

 when, at the close of a meeting held on 18th February, it was 

 announced that " Mr. Patterson had just received a letter from 

 London," communicating the melancholy intelligence of the 

 death there of Wm. Thompson, Esq., the president of the 

 society, on the morning of the previous day, the 17th. The 

 death of this eminent naturalist and accomplished gentleman 

 in the prime of life, his 47th year, inflicted an almost irreparable 

 loss on the society, of which he was such a distinguished orna- 



