drawn. Consequently the present number of members is 

 612. If numbers can be adduced as evidence of success 

 the Committee will be justified in offering their hearty con- 

 gratulations. They believe it is almost unparalleled that 

 560 members should have joined any Society, allied how- 

 ever remotely to science, in the short space of four years, 

 accompanied by so small a reduction by reason of death or 

 other causes. 



These four years of success have left us a legacy in the 

 shape of great responsibilities, which we must perforce 

 accept. If the opportunities afforded to members be great, 

 the demand upon them for increased exertion is proportion- 

 ably great. 



Let no one, therefore, work for his own gratification 

 alone, but let each strive to contribute to the general fund 

 of information, ever bearing in mind that whatever he may 

 have met with interesting to himself may be interesting to 

 others also. There is nothing in the field of nature so in- 

 significant but that it may prove of value to some one or 

 other of the members who has accustomed himself to in- 

 vestigate whatever may come under his notice, and who has 

 made 



' ' The fields his study— nature his book." 



July IZrd, 1869. 



