Clii PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
checked by careful treatment on Mr. Rodger’s return, but it served 
to show what constant attention is required. It is thus more than 
ever evident that some permanent provision must be made for the 
proper maintenance of the Museum, more especially as the collec¬ 
tions are constantly increasing, both in extent and in value. 
During the summer months large numbers of visitors from all 
parts of the country have visited the Museum, and have examined 
the collections with evident interest. These embraced, besides the 
ordinary tourists and excursionists who visited the city, many visitors 
who came to attend some of the special gatherings, of which so many 
are now held in Perth as a convenient centre. For instance, in con¬ 
nection with the Co-operative Congress special arrangements were 
made for keeping the Museum open during the evenings, and mem¬ 
bers of our Society conducted parties of delegates over the buildings 
and explained to them the arrangement, etc. Several of the dele¬ 
gates were members of Natural History Societies in English provin¬ 
cial towns, and were able to appreciate the value of the twofold 
system adopted in our Museum. 
During the past summer a movement has been begun in connec¬ 
tion with our sister Society—The Literary and Antiquarian Society— 
which I may be pardoned for referring to very briefly, as it has a 
certain bearing on our own work. I mean the scheme brought 
forward by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong Hall for the reorganisation of 
the Museum in George Street, of which he recently published an 
outline in the Perthshire Advertiser. I have the less hesitation in 
referring to Mr. Armstrong Hall’s scheme as he is a warm supporter 
of our own Society, and has more than once contributed papers to 
our meetings. Mr. Armstrong Hall’s plan, so far as I understand it, 
is to do for Archaeology precisely what we have done for Natural 
Science, namely, to bring together a thoroughly representative collec¬ 
tion of objects illustrative of the history of Perth and Perthshire, all 
of which shall have full descriptive labels, and shall be arranged in 
proper sequence, so as to be of really educational value to the com¬ 
munity. Along with this purely local collection would, I believe, be 
arranged a small typical collection of general antiquities. Such a 
scheme as this, I am sure, cannot fail to meet with the heartiest 
sympathy from members of our Society, not only from a sense of 
the delicate flattery which is supposed to be associated with imitation, 
but also because it supplies the want which was pointed out by Sir 
William Flower three years ago, when he said that no town was com¬ 
plete in its educational equipment which did not possess both a 
scientific and an antiquarian museum, arranged in accordance with 
modern educational ideas. Another reason, however, why this 
scheme should commend itself to us is that it would bring to an end 
the anomaly of having two Natural History Museums in Perth—one 
in Tay Street and the other in George Street. I cannot leave this 
subject without expressing our obligation to the Committee of the 
Antiquarian Society for having deposited with us some of their 
natural history specimens, which will be very useful in filling some ot 
the blanks in our zoological type collection. 
Turning now to the syllabus of our winter meetings, it is, I think, 
