2 
REPOKT OF 
attachment to the pursuits of natural science; but also as 
exciting and confirming the hope that the Institution will con¬ 
tinue to be an object of very general and lively interest, and 
that it will not fail to receive, so long as it shall continue 
to merit, the patronage that shall carry it through those tem¬ 
porary difficulties to which all human schemes are un¬ 
avoidably exposed, and enable it to be as eminently and 
extensively useful as the most enlightened and benevolent 
mind can desire. 
The Council have the satisfaction of announcing that the 
Committees appointed for promoting special researches in 
science, as stated in the last Annual Report, have entered on 
active labours, some of which have already produced valuable 
results ; and have formed arrangements for farther progress 
and extensive co-operation. 
The Donations, though less numerous than in some former 
years, include many contributions of remarkable interest and 
value, to almost every department of the Museum; and 
several volumes of scientific and antiquarian research, which 
greatly enrich the growing Library of the Institution. 
The collection of Fossil Organic Remains has been 
increased by several acquisitions which derive a peculiar value 
from the circumstance that they fill up some of those vacancies 
which must necessarily occur in the illustration of so vast a 
subject, by the contributions of independeiit observers. One 
of the most important of tliese specimens, which the discoveries 
of the year have brought to aid the general deductions of 
Geology, is the Badges' from the Crag of Suffolk, presented by 
the Rev. Stephen Croft. The true history and relative date 
of that remarkable deposit will probably require for some time 
to come a very diligent examination ; but it must be admitted 
that the occurrence in it of such an animal as the Badger 
