4: PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



For tlie last year the output of work has been well maintainecL 

 As new recruits we welcomed Drs. J. B. Cleland and E. W. 

 Ferguson, Messrs. T. H. Johnston and A, F. B. Hull, whil& 

 veteran Members continued their work on Bacteriology, Botany, 

 Biochemistry, Comparative Anatomy, Conchology, Entomology, 

 various branches of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology. Their 

 writings advance Australian Science in these branches, and will,. 

 E trust, prove fruitful of further thought and deed. 



Our Annual Volume, No. xxxiv., embodying these researches,, 

 was promptly completed and distributed. It contained about 

 eight hundred and fifty pages, and was illustrated by sixty-nine 

 plates. In bulk it equals the united annual product of other 

 Australian scientiBc societies, and we may, I think, without 

 conceit,regard it with satisfaction. The increasing demand 

 abroad for our publications is accepted as a token of apprecia- 

 tion from those qualified to express it. Recently the standard 

 of our volume has been visibly raised by the highly trained 

 specialists now engaged by the Society. 



In discharge of the trust imposed on us by the Founder, and' 

 mindful of these words by President Stei)hens, " on satisfactory 

 proof being given to the Council that the holder has laboured' 

 during the preceding term with earnestness, perseverance and 

 success," Dr. Petrie, Mr. Goddard, and Mr. Cotton were approved 

 and re-appointed for the ensuing year as Linnean Macleay 

 Fellows. 



Though Dr. Jensen retired from a Fellowship two years ago^,, 

 he has continued to enrich our Proceedings with geological infor- 

 mation obtained daring his term of office. It was a gratification 

 to his fellow Members to learn that the Syme Prize for the 

 encouragement of research work in natural science was last year 

 awarded to Dr. Jensen by the University of Melbourne. 



During the past year the Macleay Bacteriologist has investi- 

 gated several problems connected with opsonic activity. The 

 opsonins are tho.se bodies, contained in the blood and body fluids, 

 which assist the white blood corpuscles or phagocytes to absorb 

 all microbes, including those which excite disease. They exist 



