6 
the society eannot fail to have recognised the great importance of 
the admirable abstracts of papers and debates prepared by your 
honorary reporting Secretary, Mr. William Lant Carpenter, for the 
use of members, and for publication in selected scientific journals. 
Your Council think it just to call attention to these condensed 
abstracts, as they indicate the desire and intention of the society to 
gain, by serious and sustained efforts, a public position as a scientific 
body, and to maintain the just claims of the several contributors to 
a deserved public reputation as the fruit of their industry and study. 
Referring to the minutes of the meeting on May 8th, 1863, we find 
after the adoption of the report then presented, the re-election of 
officers and the appointment of Mr. "Wm. Lant Carpenter as Honorary 
Reporting Secretary, that the next business entered upon was a 
recommendation of your Council to enlarge its numbers by the 
addition of members elected from the general body. This recom- 
mendation was discussed, accepted, and acted on, and Eule III 
altered to its present form in accordance with this change. Your 
Council have a further recommendation to offer in reference to the 
number of members composing the Council, which will be explained 
and commented on in a later paragraph of the present report. 
The next important miiiute of the annual meeting, related to the 
contribution offered by the society to the Museum Fund of the 
Philosophical Institution. It can scarcely be necessary to insist on 
the obvious advantages, which the Naturalists' Society derives from 
its connection with an Institution, which has mainly represented 
science in Bristol, and given it a local habitation as well as a name 
for the last 40 years. It will therefore be sufficient to put on 
record the fact, that all meetings of the society, as well as those 
of the Council, have, up to the present time, been held in 
this theatre, and that the obligations of this society have, during 
the second year of its existence, rather increased than diminished 
by the permission so liberally accorded to make use of the Museum 
and other accommodations of the Institution. !N"or is it to be for- 
gotten, that the contributions of our society to the Museum of the 
