11 ANNIVERSARY MEETING, 



whereas at the close of 1849 it amounted to 563597 10*. od., of 

 which the estimated value on the 31st Dec. 1849 (Consols being at 

 96) was ^3453. 



The Council have to announce the completion of the fifth volume 

 of the Journal, and the pubhcation of the first part of Vol. VI. 



In consequence of the appointment of Mr. Nicol to the Professor- 

 ship of Geology in Queen's College, Cork, the Council have been 

 again compelled to take steps to find a successor who should satisfac- 

 torily fill the ofiice of Assistant Secretary. Hitherto, Mr. Nicol' s 

 duties at Cork have not compelled him to relinquish the task of 

 editing the Jom'nal, but the Council are now desirous of losing no 

 time in making some permanent arrangement, which will, they trust, 

 include an efficient control and superintendence of the Collection. 



They have already been enabled during a portion of the past year, 

 owing to the improved state of the Society's finances, to make such 

 arrangements with Mr. Nicol, that he was enabled to give additional 

 daily attendance at the apartments of the Society, devoting such time 

 to tbe arrangement and superintendence of the Museum. 



Cariying out the resolutions of the Council announced in their 

 address last year, they have the satisfaction of stating that, owing 

 to the active and zealous co-operation of several of their Members, 

 many of the inorganic and duplicate specimens have been removed 

 from the Foreign Collection, and the valuable organic specimens 

 hitherto consigned to the crypts for want of space, have been, or are in 

 the act of being, incorporated with the Collection. 



Considerable progress has also been made in the arrangement of 

 the Foreign Collection, the details of which will be more appropri- 

 ately described in the Museum Report. The system adopted by the 

 Council combines, as they trust, all the principal advantages contem- 

 plated either in a geographical or a stratigraphical arrangement. 



The Council have instructed Mr. Nicol to arrange various sets of 

 the duplicate specimens of fossils, rocks and minerals, for the purpose 

 of presentation to some of the many pubhc bodies which have made 

 application for them during past years. One of these sets is intended 

 for Queen's College, Cork. Such a distribution will tend to the ex- 

 tension of geological knowledge, and will therefore, they feel confi- 

 dent, meet with the approbation of the Members generally. 



In comphance with the wish generally expressed last year, the 

 Secretaries were authorized to prepare, and have prepared, an alpha- 

 betical catalogue of the books in the Library ; the Council trust that 

 the facilities of reference thereby offered will be satisfactory to the 

 Fellows. They have also resolved that the sum of £50 be expended 

 on the Library, with a view to procure certain standard works in very 

 general request, the acquisition of which will materially add to the 

 efficiency and practical utility of the Library. 



In conclusion they have to announce that they have awarded the 

 WoUaston Palladium Medal for the present year to Mr. Wilham 

 Hopkins, M.A. of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, for his researches 

 illustrative of the application of Mathematics and Physics to Geology, 

 as shown in his Memoirs published in the Philosophical Transactions, 



