30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 8. 
But tlie Fellows are requested to observe that the support 
required for these purposes is very considerable, as the fol¬ 
lowing Report from the Society’s Accountant shows 
REPORT TO THE FINANCE COMMITTEE BY THE ACCOUNTANT 
UPON THE PRESENT FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE SOCIETY. 
16, Bucklersbury, 
12 th March, 1856. 
The Report of Mr. Godson’s committee advises the hold¬ 
ing two Exhibitions at Chiswick this year—now the cost of 
these (including medals to be awarded) would be at least 
£1500, probably much more, but say £1500, in addition to 
which a new large tent ought to be provided to re-place one 
in a very unsafe state, which if purchased would probably 
cost £150; or, if hired, from £30 to £50. 
The pecuniary risk, therefore, to which the society is ex¬ 
posed by the plan proposed by the committee amounts to 
£1050, minus what may be the proceeds from the sale of 
tickets, of which the following is the return since 1850 
Sale of Tickets for Three Exhibitions. 
1850.^”4102 
.. 5046 
1852 . 3225 
1853 . 3634 
1854 . 2351 
1855 . 1681 
The last four years’ receipts show an average of about 
£900 for each exhibition, but it is quite impossible to form 
any idea of the probable receipts this year. 
If the exhibitions were to succeed and produce a surplus 
of at least £1200, over and above their own expenses, esti¬ 
mated above at £1650, the society might be carried on for 
another year without increasing the debt, providing the pre¬ 
sent reduced expenditure should not he increased, but if they 
were unsuccessful, and it became necessary that the garden 
should be given up, the financial position of the society 
would be as follows:— 
The debt of the Society on the 31st March next is ex¬ 
pected to amount to... 
To this would have to be added the difference between 
the Ordinary Expenditure of the Society for nearly 
twelve months, being an estimate of four months 
until the Exhibitions were over, and six months for 
selling off and arranging the affairs, or .^3500 
And the estimated Income for the same period, say Sub- 
scriptions.2300 
Miscellaneous. 300 J 
^9300 
Leaving a deficiency of.^1200 1200 
The above is exclusive of Exhibition Receipts and Pay¬ 
ments altogether. 
Also add extra Rent payable for the Garden, viz., half year^ 
to complete term of occupation . j6‘ 100 I 3 qq 
And one year’s extra Rent on giving up Garden according | 
to the Lease .^200j ■ ■ ■■ 
Total ....^10800 
It should be further observed that this amount, although 
it represents the liabilities of the society in case it continues 
after giving up the garden, does by no means represent 
them in case it should be found impossible to carry it on at 
all. In that event it would be necessary to ascertain the 
value of Life Subscriptions, which the society would be ex¬ 
pected to return to those Fellows who have effected them. 
These are as follows :— 
149 Fellows have paid ^4956 for their Life Compositions upwards of 
twenty years ago. 
106 ,, ,, ,, 396 O for the like from one to twenty years ago. 
255 ^8916 
An actuary is the only person who can ascertain the 
amount claimable by these Fellows. 
The total debt of the Society would therefore, be £10800, 
exclusive of Life Compositions, against which there are the 
following assets :— 
Subscriptions due 1st May next and Arrears now due . ^9700 
Value of a House in Regent Street. 4700 
Books and Drawings valued at. 1000 
Rents outstanding, Ate. ....... 67 
Property at Chiswick as valued ..^15656 
Deduct proceeds of sales of Stove Plants_^569 1 
Bo. do. Herbaria. 254 7 823 
- 14833 
Total.^23300 
Showing an apparent surplus of.^12500 
From which must be taken the value of the 
Lne Compositions, ^8916, hut which is not 
attempted to be estimated. 
In the above estimates I do not take into consideration 
what must be added to the debt in case the exhibitions fail, 
nor what may be the effect of reducing the annual sub¬ 
scriptions as proposed to £2 2s. I would, however, draw 
the attention of the committee to the serious decrease in 
the number of Fellows this year alone, viz., by death 38, 
and resignation 45, causing a loss of £273 per annum, 
whilst the elections have only been 30, producing £126 per 
annum. 
The present difficulty, however, which the Committee in their 
Report do not remove, is—How to pay off the Flouting Debt 
of the Society, viz .;— 
£2400 to Messrs, Call <£• Co. at 6 per cent, interest, of which 
£1500 is due on the 0th April and £500 on the 21si of 
June next. 
And about £1900, for Rent and Taxes, Medal Accounts, 
Salaries, and Bills owing, a great part of which is comi- 
siderably overdue. Addison Duncan, Accountant, 
At the meeting of the society on Feb. 5th it was pro¬ 
posed by His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, a Vice- 
President of the society, to make room immediately in the 
council for some of the Fellows who dissented from the 
measures suggested in the report of that date. The coun¬ 
cil are now in a position to give effect to that proposal in 
consequence of the retirement of three gentlemen, who 
from ill-health have unfortunately found themselves unable 
to be useful to the society as they once were. The Right 
Hon. Laurence Sulivan, Mr. Gowen, and Mr. Stracban, 
three of the oldest Fellow's of the Society, whose counsel 
and assistance, so long as their health permitted them to 
give it, has been invaluable, have sent in their resignations, 
and it is part of the business of this day to elect their suc¬ 
cessors. On this occasion the council have put in nomina¬ 
tion a gentleman w'liose standing in society and acquaintance 
with rural affairs would render him a valuable councillor, 
even in the absence of another claim, that of having been 
an active member of the late committee. With him the 
council associate two eminently practical men, of whom one 
was also upon the late committee, and the other must be 
known to many here as a most able and experienced gar¬ 
dener. By this means the council will be able to receive 
immediately the advice and assistance of gentlemen who are 
in possession of tlie views of the late committee, and who 
will know how to support them. 
On the 1st of May, at the anniversary, three more vacan¬ 
cies must be made in the council, in compliance with the 
charter, and at that time an opportunity will he afforded of 
putting in nomination a third practical horticulturist; and 
the council will thus, as quickly as circumstances permit, 
have complied with the wish of the committee, that there 
should be three practical men among its number. 
The council anxiously hope that whatever the measures 
may be which the society adopts, they will be attended by 
the advantages expected from them. 
Anesthetic Principle of Fungi. —Mr. Thornton 
Herepath, in a communication to the Philosophical 
Magazine, No. 63, observes :—“The smoke of the puff¬ 
ball, it is well known, has been long employed in some 
parts of the country, by apiarists, for stupefying bees. 
In a paper ‘On tlie Anaesthetic Properties of the Lyco- 
perdon proteus, or common Puff-ball,’ which was read 
before the Medical Society of London, in 1853, Mr. B. 
W. Richardson called particular attention to this fact, 
and stated that the fumes of the burning fungus pro¬ 
duced the most perfect anaesthesia, not only in insects, 
but also in dogs, cats, rabbits, and probably in all the 
larger animals, and might consequently he applied as a 
substitute for the vapour of chloroform and aether in 
producing insensibility to pain in surgical practice." 
Mr. Herepath, with the view of ascertaining the exact 
nature of the active principle of narcotism in the above 
and similar cases, has made several experiments. He 
lias specially examined “ the fumes for carbonic oxide, 
by agitating them with an acid solution of chloride of 
copper, and also by absorbing the carbonic acid, ammo- 
! 
I 
