151 
alterations. Your Council last July reappointed Mr. Alfred 
Brothers, F.B.A.S., for a further period of one year, giving 
him the additional title of Assistant Secretary. The pre- 
sent arrangement was not intended to he a permanent 
one, and the Council recommend their successors to discon- 
tinue the office of curator and assistant secretary. 
It is with great regret that your Council has just received 
the resignation of Mr. William Boscoe, the Society’s house- 
keeper and collector, his failing health and that of his wife not 
permitting him to discharge any longer the increasing duties 
consequent upon the enlargement of the Society’s premises, 
and the more extensive use made of the rooms. Mr. Boscoe 
has served the Society during the last twenty-three years 
with faithfulness, diligence, and courtesy; and his long 
services, orderly habits, exact knowledge of the positions of 
books in the library, his respectful bearing and ready 
willingness to oblige, have secured the esteem of the mem- 
bers. The appointment of a successor will be one of the 
earliest duties devolving upon the incoming Council. 
In the Publishing Account, the printing of the Society’s 
publications shows an increase, as it includes an item for 
printing which belonged to the previous session. The pay- 
ments for wood-engraving, &c., are larger, but your Council 
continues to charge to the Natural History Fund the cost 
of the illustrations required for the natural history papers^ 
which are printed in the ‘ Memoirs.’ The Council has had 
under consideration all through the session the change in 
the mode of publishing the Society’s papers, referred to in 
the Beport for last year, and it has resolved that one publi- 
cation only shall, in future, be issued in parts at convenient 
intervals, entitled “ Memoirs and Proceedings of the Man- 
chester Literary and Philosophical Society.” Each member 
will have the option of receiving the parts separately on 
publication, or collectively in an annual volume. The 
Council considers it important that some attention should 
