138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Ordinary Members oj the Council- V. W. Watson Baker; J. E. 

 Barnard ; V. J. Cheshire ; Charles Lees Curties ; ('. V. Hill ; J. Hopkin- 

 soii ; I*. E. I lad ley : J. Rheinberg ; C. V. Rousselet ; D. J. Sconrfield ; 

 E. J. Spitta : Kir'Almroth E. Wright. 



Librarian — P. E. Radley. 



Curator of Instruments, etc. — C. F. Rousselet. 



Curator of Slides- V. Shillington Scales. 



The President then gave his Annual Address on " The Determination 



of Sex." 



After the Address the President said that he wished to congratulate 

 the Society on their increasing Membership, and on the activity and 

 interest maintained during the past session. He also wished to thank 

 them, and especially the Council and Officers of the Society, for the 

 kindness and consideration which they had shown to him during his 

 term of office. It had been a great pleasure to him to serve the Society, 

 with which he had been so long connected, and he was not a little grati- 

 fied at the happy coincidence of his presidentship with a year of prosperity. 

 He hoped that the prosperity would continue and increase. He thought, 

 however, if he might say so, that two practical improvements were emi- 

 nently desirable and urgent. 1. That they should display in a fitting 

 and dignified manner a considerable proportion of the Microscopes and 

 other instruments in the possession of the Society, which should, he 

 thought, be described in an illustrated catalogue. 2. That they should 

 develop on an ambitious scale the Society's collection of microscopical 

 slides, partly by the industry of the Fellows themselves, and partly by 

 soliciting typical slides from other workers. In that way might gradually 

 be built up what did not exist, namely a typical collection — a Reference 

 Museum — of microscopical preparations which would be a valuable asset 

 not only to the Society but to scientific workers in general. 



He hoped that as Vice-President, or otherwise, he might still continue 

 to express actively his interest in the Society's welfare. 



Mr. Michael said that after the great applause following on the Presi- 

 dent's Address it seemed to him hardly necessary to propose the usual 

 vote, namely, that the thanks of the Society be returned to the President 

 for his Address, and that he be asked to give his consent for its publica- 

 tion in the Society's Transactions. The opinion of the Meeting had been 

 pretty definitely expressed. The Address to which they had listened 

 that evening had been an extremely able contribution to one of the most 

 interesting of existing subjects, and had been treated in a manner (as 

 might indeed be expected) entirely characteristic of the care, ability and 

 open-mindedness for which the President was characterized in whatever 

 research he took up. The Address would commend itself as a clear sum- 

 mary of the present state of our knowledge on a fascinating subject, and 

 it came with especial appropriateness from Professor Thomson, who had 

 spent much time and thought on its consideration. The subject could 

 not altogether be said to have been lifted out of the realm of conjecture, 

 but so far as our present knowledge went the conjectures to which Pro- 

 fessor Thomson had drawn special attention in his Address seemed to 



