PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES, 
37 
sliow the germ or ciatricula pf the future being, and afterwards twenty-one eggs 
in succession, to show the process of development to maturity. Not one of the 
entire series was a failure, the whole possessing life and animation. Under a 
glass cover warmed artificially were about a dozen birds that had come into 
existence within a few hours, which displayed great vivacity; and in a second 
were placed eggs in which the birds were attempting to liberate themselves from 
their shells, which they perform in a curious manner by making circular openings 
with their bills. The most w r onderful phenomenon was the pulsation of the heart 
and the circulation of the blood, which in a living specimen continued the whole 
of the evening, without apparently suffering in the slightest degree from exposure 
to the light and air. 
HULL LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
May 7.—The sixteenth annual meeting of this Society was held on Tuesday 
evening, Charles Frost, Esq., President, in the chair.—J. B. Briggs, Esq., 
Treasurer, read the financial statement, which exhibited £637. 2s. 8d. on the 
debtor, and £278. 3s. on the creditor side, leaving debts to the amount of 
£358.15s. 3d. unpaid ; the balance owing twelve months before was £298. 2s. 4d. 
There was, therefore, an increase of debt to the amount of £60. 12s. lid.; but 
this was more than counter-balanced by an outlay of £107, in the making and 
fitting-up of cases for the exhibition of specimens of Geology in the museum. An 
excellent report, proving the great utility of the Society, and the value of its 
museum—as pronounced by several of the most eminent men of the present day, 
in their various departments, who had visited it during the past year—was read 
by the President. A resolution to open the museum to strangers on payment of 
one shilling each, or half-a-crown for a party, was passed; but this resolution 
does not interfere with the unlimited issue of gratis tickets by all the members 
of the Society. It was also resolved to hold the ordinary meetings every alternate 
Tuesday, during the session, instead of the first and third Tuesdays in the month. 
It was further resolved to repeat the invitation given last year to the British 
Association to hold an early meeting in this town. Thanks were voted to the 
retiring Council, and particularly to the Secretaries, for their extraordinary and 
gratuitous services in the museum. The efficient services of the Treasurer were 
also particularly noticed. The meeting then proceeded to the election of a new 
Council; the result was as follows :— President — Charles Frost, Esq.; Vice- 
presidents — Thomas Thompson and H. R. Francis ; Secretaries — Thomas Frost 
and T. J. Pearsall ; Council —H. Cooper, R. Craven, W. H. Dikes, Dr. 
Fielding, A. W. Gadsden, T. W. Gleadow, J. E. Lee, H. F. Lockwood, 
F. S. A., Henry Quin, R. H. Spence, John Terry, Robert Wells. 
