12 
REPORT. 
occupy, on fixed and moderate terms, the ground contiguous 
to the ramparts; and have thus given it the ancient City 
walls for one of the boundaries of its Garden. 
Enjoying so large a share of public favour, and promising 
so many new advantages, the Institution has increased the 
number of its Members, in a proportion which almost doubles 
the admissions of the preceding twelvemonth ; and through 
the funds supplied by these means, the Council have been 
enabled to relieve the accounts of more than half the debt 
which had been formerly contracted, so that the balance 
against the Society is reduced to thirty-four pounds. But the 
fees of admission paid by new Members, are an accidental 
and precarious source of income; and the Council request the 
attention of the Meeting to the fact, that without this assistance 
the expenditure of the year would have exceeded the annual 
subscriptions by seventeen pounds, even though a severe 
economy has been observed, and though but half the salary of 
that highly valued and indispensable Officer of the Institution, 
the Keeper of the Museum, has been paid from the public 
fund.^ They would also remind the Meeting, that the increased 
expenses of the new establishment, must be expected to be 
more than a counterbalance for the reduction of rent; and lastly, 
that the maintenance of a Scientific Garden, which is one of the 
conditions of the royal grant, must be expected, on however 
^ The remainder of the salary has been hitherto paid by private subscription. 
The same means have been resorted to, for the purchase of zoological specimens 
and books of^ Natural History ; but the important object of forming a good 
Library for scientific reference, can only be accomplished by an increase of the 
general funds ; at present, the works of this description which the Society pos¬ 
sesses, are insufficient for the proper,use and illustration of its Collections, 
