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add his observations to the general stock of our knowledge, as time 

 and chance may offer occasion. For if these are retained with the 

 expectation that time and further opportunities will suffice to render 

 them more perfect or complete, the experience of most of the mem- 

 bers of this Society, will, I fear, agree with mine upon all such 

 matters, namely, that the desired period of perfection or completion 

 seldom or never arrives, or that the matter if too long delayed, 

 has lost that freshness and interest which constitutes its greatest 

 attraction when given fresh from the mind of the observer. I regard 

 it as one of the peculiar excellencies of Societies like ours, that they 

 afford the best possible means for conveying to the scientific world, 

 those isolated observations and facts, which, if carefully made and 

 authenticated, constitute the very best materials for our advancement 

 in any department of natural knowledge. And I trust that the 

 members will accept this brief memoir from me, on the first night 

 of my coming into office as their President, as an earnest of the 

 desire that I feel for the mutual improvement of our opportunities, 

 and for the establishment of a more general desire to communicate, 

 in the form of brief written records, those observations which our 

 unrivalled opportunities, especially in regard to instruments of re- 

 search, both individually and collectively, cannot fail to be constantly 

 placing at the disposal of every one of us. 



