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in favour of the adoption of the proposal before the meeting, and he should 

 himself certainly vote in favour of it. 



Mr. Goodwin said that so far as he could understand from the remarks 

 of previous speakers the chief reason for wanting the change was the fact 

 that many of the members had either gone or were just going into the 

 country at the time whsn the annual meeting was held. It struck him 

 that there might be many other reasons besides this. They had a great 

 many country members who, it might be supposed, would like to attend 

 the annual meeting, and who would not be vefy well able to do so if it 

 were held in the winter. Persons from the country often made a practice 

 of visiting London in May or about that time of year, and, if his memory 

 rightly served him, he thought he was correct in saying that May was a 

 month in which they generally had a very good attendance at their meet- 

 ings. He thought, therefore, that it would be more convenient both to 

 town members and to country members if the annual meeting were in future 

 held in May. 



Mr. Epps thought it might guide them in forming an opinion if they 

 knew at what time the meetings of other similar societies were usually 

 held. 



The President said that the generality of them held their meetings in 

 January or February. The Linnean held theirs in May, but that was 

 because their anniversary was always held on the birthday of Linnaeus. 



Mr. Funston thought January was a most inconvenient month to select 

 for the purpose. The weather was nearly always bad, preventing all but 

 very robust persons from going out in the evening, and domestic and 

 social arrangements would be very likely to interfere with attendance at 

 that time of year. He thought that May would be much more convenient 

 than an earlier month. 



Mr. Parsons said he was just about to make the same remark, that the 

 winter seemed a bad time to choose if the object was to secure a better 

 attendance. In addition to the unfavourable nature of the weather, there 

 were a great many other attractions at that time which would be likely 

 to affect them adversely. Like Dr. Cooke, he felt very much averse to 

 changes in the rules, and did not like to support making a change like 

 this for the reasons named. He thought perhaps one reason why they had 

 a small attendance at the annual meetings might be that members found 

 them rather too dull to entice them to come. 



Mr. Hardy said there seemed to be a difference of opinion as to the best 

 time at which to hold the meeting. He would, therefore, propose that a 

 show of hands should be taken, one in favour of January and one for 

 May. 



The President pointed out that the first question they had to decide 

 was, whether or not it was desirable to make any change ; when they had 

 settled that, the fixing of a convenient date could be managed as a matter 

 of detail. 



