104 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



my predecessor in this chair, under whose auspices it had been set 

 afloat, yet it gave me unfeigned pleasure that one of the first 

 public acts which took place after my election to the chair of this 

 Society should have been of so agreeable a character. Gentlemen, 

 while I thus speak of the success of the Club, and of the numbers 

 which now swell the list of its members, we must not forget that 

 numbers, though in some degree a test of success, are not every- 

 thing ; we must look to what we are doing in the way of promoting 

 the science we are banded together to assist. Are we doing all we 

 can, all we ought? I scarcely think that we are. I am disposed 

 to think that we do not take sufficient advantage of our organi- 

 sation. We are not sufficiently systematic in our proceedings. 

 We must bear in mind that, however agreeable, and even 

 useful, it may be to meet and gossip about this or that 

 at our monthly and fortnightly meetings, and listen to a paper 

 on some isolated point, that is not the end and object of our 

 Society. We should remember that we are essentially a student 

 body, and I could have wished at our meetings that there could 

 have been more discussion to follow the reading of our papers. 

 This want of discussion is evidence that the subject has not suffi- 

 cient hold on the labours and investigations of others to call forth 

 inquiry and debate. This, as I have said before, arises from a want 

 of system in our proceedings. A paper on some special subject, 

 or branch of a special subject, is brought before us without pre- 

 vious concert with others ; it comes frequently before us without 

 previous notice, possibly no one else has been pursuing the same or 

 kindred train of investigation, and there is consequently no one 

 capable of adding to the common stock of knowledge ; the paper is 

 too apt to fall dead, without interest, and obtains no further notice 

 till it is read, or perhaps not read, some months afterwards in our 

 Transactions. 



The Club has no doubt accomplished great good in diffusing the 

 taste for microscopical investigation, and in facilitating the communi- 

 cation of results, but room is still left for suggestions as to en- 

 larging its usefulness. In the face of existing scientific societies, 

 the grounds for establishing new ones are two -fold — first, affording 

 other facilities for the acquisition of new truths ; second, the ex- 

 tension of the cultivation of the particular science amongst 

 persons not comprised in the elder society. Each body then 

 should have its own characteristic, so as to ensure its occupying its 



