PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 543 



and a reply post-card, of which 284 were issued to Fellows of the 

 Society having postal addresses within the United Kingdom. Prints of 

 the circular and of the post-card are appended to this report. To these 

 circulars 205 replies were received — 79 did not reply. The result of 

 the replies actually received may be summarily stated as follows : — 



" 1. On the question of admitting lady Fellows to the Meetings of 

 the Society, 205 replies were received. Of these replies 146 were in 

 favour of admission, 42 were against admission, and 17 were to the 

 effect that the writers were indifferent upon the subject. 



"2. Respecting the question of the admission of lady Fellows to 

 seats on the Council, about 108 of the answers received were in favour 

 of the proposal, about 74 were against it, and about 23 were indifferent. 



" 3. "With reference to the inquiry for the names of ladies who were 

 desirous of joining the Society, the replies received yielded a negative 

 result. 



•• 4. In reference to the question of empowering the Council to issue 

 invitations, it is difficult to state the result of the inquiry in a statistical 

 form. In some cases it is clear that the writers have expressed them- 

 selves in favour of this proposal as being a second best, and in other 

 cases have expressed themselves against it because it was ouly, in their 

 opinion, a second best. It may, we think, be gathered as a whole result 

 of the inquiry that upon this proposal four opinions are held : (1) a 

 certain number of Fellows consider it the best proposal ; (2) a very 

 considerable proportion of Fellows consider it the second best proposal 

 — some of these approve it as such ; (3) others, thinking that it does 

 not go far enough to be of substantial use to the Society, do not approve 

 it ; (4) a third section of the Fellows, more numerous probably than 

 those who consider it the best proposal, but much less numerous than 

 those who consider it the second best, are opposed to it as being an 

 undesirable innovation. 



" Your Committee has considered these expressions of opinion with 

 great care, and has also considered the practical questions of convenience 

 and inconvenieuce involved. Upon these more detailed matters, how- 

 ever, your Committee does not consider it necessary to present any 

 report, forasmuch as the consideration of the larger questions involved 

 leads, in the opinion of your Committee, to a definite result. Your 

 Committee has therefore to report : — 



" 1. That your Committee has not been able to obtain any sufficient 

 evidence of an existing desire on the part of ladies to share in the pro- 

 ceedings of the Society. 



"2. That, having considered the probable effect of the proposed 

 change upon the financial position of the Society, your Committee has 

 not been able to discover any reasonably sure prospect of advantage to 

 the Society in that way. 



" 3. That your Committee has received expressions of dissent from 

 several Fellows of the Society such as to make it, in the opinion of the 

 Committee, inexpedient to proceed further at the present time with the 

 proposed alteration of the By-laws. 



" 4. That the attention of your Committee has been called to the 

 provisions of the Charter and By-laws, which place the management of 



