242 
and upon binding ; but in the last septennial period the 
total expenditure was reduced to the inadequate amount of 
£325. In recent years scarcely anything has been spent 
upon binding, so that a large outlay is impending for this 
purpose at the earliest date that the Society’s purse will 
admit of its being incurred. 
The Natural History Fund (accruing from £1,225 Great 
Western Eailway Co.’s stock) continues to be devoted to 
natural history purposes, as the successive dividends are 
received. As has been reported under the Publishing 
Account, this fund is used in providing illustrations for 
natural history memoirs; but most of its disbursements 
have been made through The Microscopical and Natural 
History Section in the purchase of valuable works on 
natural history. An extended list of works thus added to 
the Society’s Library was published in the Proceedings for 
1884-5, page 115. The balance remaining at the credit of 
this fund on the 31st March, 1886, is £11 Is. 7d. 
The Centenary Fund, initiated in 1883-4, is nearly 
completed, and the Treasurer presents, as last year, a 
separate detailed account showing the receipts and dis- 
bursements of this fund. This account furnishes some 
noteworthy features. In the last report reference was 
made to the completion of the new rooms, out of the 
special fund provided by the members, at the instance of 
Sir Henry Roscoe, to celebrate the centenary of the Society. 
During the session just closed, the largest contributor to 
the cost of the new building, Mr. Henry Wilde, resolved 
with the grateful consent of his colleagues on the Council, 
to take upon himself the entire expense of putting the old 
portions of the Society’s building into sound repair. A new 
and handsome portico has been added to the front; new plate 
glass windows replace those formerly in use ; the meeting 
room, council room, and cloak room have been decorated, 
and new sunlights and ventilators added ; the entrance-hall 
