OF WASHINGTON. 163 



Professor Riley, with the exception of that for 1892, which was 

 held at Mr. Howard's. Too much cannot be said in support of 

 the semi-social feature which the Society has introduced in its 

 meetings. It would be difficult to estimate the influence which 

 this move has had upon the success of the Society, but it must 

 have been great. Scientific men of other societies who have 

 attended our meetings, and who have, in fact, joined our ranks, 

 have said that the Entomological Society of Washington is the 

 livest society in the city and that its meetings are the most 

 interesting. 



Our present plan, however, is possible only with a small 

 society and cannot be followed by an organization having an 

 average attendance of much more than 20. 



This brings me naturally to a consideration of the attendance 

 at our meetings. I find that at the 99 meetings which we have 

 held there has been a total attendance of i ,090 and that the 

 average attendance at each meeting has, therefore, been 1 1 . The 

 highest number attending any one meeting was at the 97th, when 

 we were addressed by Professor Poulton, of Oxford, England, 

 when 27 persons were in attendance. The smallest number at 

 any one meeting has been four. If we take it right through the 

 whole ten years, this attendance has been very satisfactory, since 

 we began with a resident membership of 17, several of whom 

 took a very slight interest in the subject and never attended a 

 single meeting, and since we have now a resident membership of 

 about 30. 



Our list of non-resident or corresponding members was begun 

 by the removal of resident members from Washington, and it 

 was not until 1893 that a special effort was made to increase this 

 list. At that time letters were written to a number of entomol 

 ogists, suggesting that they might consider it advantageous to join 

 the Society, and as a result our corresponding list now numbers 

 86, including nearly all of the most prominent entomologists in 

 this country and a number from other parts of the world. The 

 total number of members of all classes who have been connected 

 with the Society, either as residents or correspondents, reaches 



X 33- 



The standing of a society, however, must be judged not by the 



number of its members, but by the character of the papers pre 

 sented before it and by the comparative number of its members 

 who have taken an active part in its discussions. In these re 

 spects our Society need not fear comparison with other work 

 ing societies. A careful analysis of the facts as displayed in our 

 minutes shows that 47 persons have read papers before the 

 Society, having presented 341 more or less formal communi 

 cations. Ninety-four persons have exhibited specimens and many 



