COUNCIL FOR 1857. 
15 
design. As the British Association will meet this year in 
Leeds^ no doubt many of its members will pay a visit to its 
birth-place; and it is much to be desired that not only our 
present collections should be in perfect order, but that the 
additional rooms should be so far finished as not to ofiend the 
eye by the appearance of incompleteness. The central room is 
designed to receive the Ichthyosaurus platyodon and the other 
Saurian remains, in which our Museum is so rich; while the 
two smaller apartments and the galleries will afibrd the means 
of more conveniently displaying our present specimens and of 
receiving the additions of many future years. 
The account which has been given of the operations of the 
Society during 1857 will show that it has been a year of large 
expenditure. The expenses of the alterations in the upper 
room of the Hospitium, with the laying down of the pavement ; 
of the repairs of the Observatory; of the construction of the 
Aquarium ; and of putting the house at the gate into tenantable 
condition, and compensating a former tenant for fiy^tures and 
other things, have amounted to upwards of £230. There has 
been at the same time the loss of a year’s rent on the house ; 
the Exhibition at Manchester has directed the stream of tourists 
and excursion trains in that direction, and reduced the receipts 
at the gate; no profit has been received from the Horticultural 
Exhibition, nor from the hire of the tent. But, on the other 
hand, the number of subscribers has been increased, and 
several compositions for annual subscriptions have been re¬ 
ceived in 1857; so that there is a small balance in favour of 
the Society. The present number of Subscribing Members, 
independently of Lady Subscribers and Associates, is 376, and 
it is evident that if this number can be maintained the Society 
has in itself the elements of permanent prosperity. 
The late Earl Eitzwilliam had held the office of our President 
since the year 1831, in which capacity he presided at the 
establishment of the British Association in that year. The 
monthly meeting of October last recorded its sense of his 
eminent public and private virtues, and of the honour and 
benefit the Society had derived from his long tenure of that 
office. In this sentiment the present meeting will no doubt 
