=The Lunar Society= of the last century, which included among its members or visitors, Priestley, Boulton, Watt, Darwin, Withering, Keir, Galton, Sir Joseph Banks, Smeaton, Edgeworth, Day, Wedgwood, Baskerville, was founded about 1765, and as the houses of the members were distant from each other, and the roads dark and sometimes dangerous at night, the meetings were held at “full moon,” hence “The Lunatics” or “Lunar Society” derived its name. Its objects were social and scientific rather than literary and it has left no literary memorials of its meetings. =Debating Societies.=--Among the earliest of the societies, common in later days, and which were the more needful when newspapers were few, were the Debating Societies, the first of which, the “Robin Hood Free Debating Society,” was a tavern-society, founded in 1774, and was followed in the same year by another, and probably a rival, or seceded body, as a “Society for the Encouragement of Free and Candid Disputation,” but both soon discussed themselves out of existence. In 1789 a “Society for Free Debate” was formed, and like the others it discussed social, moral, and political questions, so that in 1792 the magistrates interfered, on the ground that the recent riots should discourage public discussions of dangerous subjects. =Philosophical Institution.=--At the close of the century, about the year 1794, a Philosophic and Artistic Society was proposed, and in 1800 the first steps were taken to found the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, which was so successful that, in 1813, a suitable building, with a lecture room for two hundred hearers, a news room, a museum, and other necessary rooms, were erected, and were opened by a lecture by Rev. J. Corrie, a friend and biographer of Priestley, in October, 1814. This society flourished for many years, with lectures from eminent men, a good library and museum, and was finally succeeded by the Midland Institute on a much larger and more popular scale. One of its notable practical uses was the erection of Mr. Follett Osler’s first Anemometer, and excellent Clock for public convenience. For many years papers were read and discussed by members, and published in Transactions in which meteorological, industrial, and scientific facts of historic importance have been preserved.