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PROCEEDINGS. 



August 13th, 1875. — Conversational Meeting. 



The following objects were exhibited : — 



Skin of Sole, polarized, showing pigment cells Mr. Enock. 



Diatomaceae from Hong Kong Harbour... Mr. Ingpen. 



Elytron of Melolontlia vulgaris, polarized Mr. Sigsworth. 



Surirella gemma, with Hartnack's I obj Mr. F. H. Ward. 



Attendance — Members, 33 ; Visitors, 4 ; Total, 37. 



August 27th, 1875. — Dr. Matthews, F.R.M.S., President, in 



the Chair. 



At the commencement of the proceedings, the President said : Gentlemen, 

 — In assuming this chair by your kind favour for the second time, I trust 

 you will permit me to express my unfeigned sense of the great honour you 

 have done me. To have been elected once was no small matter to me, but 

 when I found that I had received that honour for the second time, it was so 

 entirely unexpected that I must confess I was very much surprised. I re- 

 member once hearing an anecdote of Lord Palmerston, and, in relating it, 

 I trust you will not suppose that I am comparing myself, in words or works, 

 with that great statesman. The story was this: — He was complimented 

 once on the great amount of work he had done, and, on being asked how he 

 got through it, his reply was, " Part I do, part does itself ; and the rest is not 

 done at all." Now, I cannot help thinking that he was guilty of what he 

 would, under other circumstances, have called a grievous piece of bad taste. 

 He committed an error into which, I trust, I shall not fall, inasmuch as he 

 had forgotten to acknowledge the help which he had received from others, 

 and which no man can afford to ignore, whatever his position. I therefore 

 now acknowledge, with all my heart, that it would not have been possible 

 for me to have achieved the success that has attended my labours, unless I 

 had received so much kind assistance and considerate help from those 

 around me. Among those from whom I have received such help it is 

 difficult, and might be somewhat invidious, to single out any particular 

 person, but there is one to whom I may refer particularly, and that is the 

 gentleman who sits at my right hand, to whose courtesy and counsel I am 



