S42 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
Meeting of 18th November, 1891, at 20, Hanover Square, W., 
the President (Dr. R. Braithwaite, F.L.S.) in the Chair. 
The President having declared the meeting to be special, in pur- 
suance of notice given at the preceding meeting* for the purpose of 
considering a proposed alteration in the Bye-laws, 
Prof. Bell read the Minutes of the last special meeting convened for 
the same purpose on 17th December, 1890, and adjourned sine d>e. He 
reminded the Fellows that special meetings were also held for the con- 
sideration of the matter on October 22nd and November 10th, 1890, at 
which it was stated that in order to obtain for the Boyal Medical and 
Chirurgical Society an exemption from the payment of rates to the parish 
in which the building was situated, it was necessary that the Societies 
occupying the various portions of the premises should be registered as 
Friendly Societies, under the Friendly Societies Act. To enable the 
Koyal Microscopical Society to be so registered, it was necessary to make 
an addition to their present Bye-laws, to provide that the Society should 
not make any gift from its funds for the private use of any person, in 
the terms stated in the resolution which was drawn up at the special 
meeting in October in the form of a new Bye-law, to be inserted im- 
mediately after Bye-law No. 53, and to be designated No. 54, which new 
Bye-law it was proposed to submit to the present meeting for acceptance. 
The difficulty in the way of the Council when this question arose, lay 
in the fact that on the part of both landlord and tenant mistakes had 
been made at the time the lease was granted, and when its terms came 
up for review it was thought desirable to get these matters adjusted if 
it was possible to do so. With this end in view, he, in connection with 
the late Mr. Mayall, had an interview with the Secretaries of the Royal 
Medical and Chirurgical Society just before the recess, at which certain 
propositions and requirements were submitted on behalf of the Council 
as conditions on which the request to register the Society might be 
undertaken. The result of that interview was that, with a few excep- 
tions, their requirements were complied with, those which were excepted 
being such as it was quite expected by the Council that the Royal 
Medical and Chirurgical Society would be unable to grant. Seeing, 
therefore, that they had been met in that way, and also that most other 
Scientific Societies were now for the same reason registered under the 
Friendly Societies Acts, he thought their concurrence in the matter 
should be given. 
The President having formally moved the adoption of the proposed 
new Bye-law, was about to put it to the meeting, when 
Mr. J. M. Allen said he thought before the Fellows of the Society 
committed themselves to such a proceeding they ought to understand the 
exact position in which the matter stood. There had been a great deal 
of correspondence between the late Mr. Mayall and the Royal Medical 
and Chirurgical Society on the questions involved, and Mr. Mayall, at 
length, in a letter dated November 13th, had formulated their require- 
ments under distinct heads which were as follows : — 1. That their access 
to the rooms was too limited, and that they wanted to be able, as at 
King’s College, to meet in their Library on Wednesday evenings from 
C to 11 o’clock. 2. That on their two Conversational Evenings they 
