Fifth Annual Report Oct 8 / 84
The fifth Annual Report of the Doncaster Microscopical & General Scientific Society which your committee has now the pleasure of presenting will, it is hoped, be found in most respects a satisfactory one in regards to the present position & future prospects of the Society
The number of members during the past year has been 65 as compared with 80 of the previous one. This falling off may in great measure be attributed to the special influences at work during the previous year when two important features in the Society Programme – the Conservazione and the Gilchrist Lectures – which helped to recruit its ranks. In 1882 there were 59 members. Two Public Lectures & Five Papers were given in the course of the session. The Lectures – one by Professor Ball of Dublin on the Telescope & its Revelations”, the others by Mr. Allen of Sheffield on “Optical Illusions” resulted in a heavy financial loss to the Society the deficiency amounting to nearly £13.00 (£12. 14. 2.) The five papers read by members of the Society were as follows
‘Flowers & Insects’ by Mr. W. H. Stott
‘Glacial Action & its connection with the geology of the neighbourhood’ by Mr. T. H. Easterfield
‘Corals & Coral Islands’ by Mr. Kirk
‘Tea & its Allies’ by Mr. Hasselby
The Chemistry of the Candle’ by Mr. Stiles
These were well received the average attendance being 28. Considerable interest in the various subjects was shown by those present & good discussions invariably followed. The Exhibition meetings, of which there were two, were also attended with much success the second one particularly so.
For the first time in the history of the Society your committee has to record a slight deficiency for although the ordinary working expenses have a balance to the good of between Eleven & Twelve Pounds the loss occasioned by the Lectures outweigh this by 24/- the actual deficiency being £1. 4. 7. This is not serious & as the committee propose to confine themselves in great measures to the ordinary work of the Society the income for the present session will doubtless more than cover the expenses.
Early in March last Mr. Kirk & the Honorary Secretary attended the Annual Meeting of the Y.N.U. at Barnsley to support the Invitation from this Society for the Union to hold its Annual Meeting for 1885 in Doncaster. As is now generally known the invitation was accepted & the visit of the Union will, your committee feel certain, be looked forward to with much interest.
It is proposed to try to make this “Annual Meeting one of the most successful that the Union has yet held & as Doncaster is so easy of access to the Societies of the West Riding & the Union this year has a well known Entomologist Lord Walsingham for its President, there is little doubt of this hope being fulfilled if the members of our own Society render what help they can to the committee.
It is proposed that the Annual Meeting shall be followed on Oct 22 by an Exhibition Meeting to be succeeded by Papers, of which several are already provided, at intervals of about three weeks. In the early part of the ‘new’ year a slight departure from the rule will be made in order to avoid clashing with the Course of Lectures given in connection with the (undeciphered) movement in which so many of our members are interested.
Your Committee again wish to record their sense of the great kindness shown by the Head Master of the G. School in allowing them the use of this room for the Societies meetings. In concluding their report the Committee congratulate the Society on the continued prosperity as shown by the large number of members & the deep interest taken by these & the public generally in its proceedings.
