president's address. 11 



been unanimously of opinion that there was only one position to 

 which Mr. Fletcher might be elected. They were proud to 

 recommend his election as President, and the Society has been 

 honoured by its recognition of this proposal. Mr. Fletcher had 

 been associated so long with the Society that he would form one 

 of the earliest recollections of the Society in the minds of those 

 present. It might, therefore, be of interest to you if 1 recall 

 some facts in the history of the Society. 



The dedication of the Hall in which we are now assembled, to 

 the Society, on 31st October, 1885, provided an opportunity for 

 Sir William Macleay, as donor, and for Professor W. J. Stephens, 

 as President, to give some interesting particulars about the early 

 history of the Society, and its future prospects and aims. 



Sir William Macleay said that the Society was first formed 

 chiefly through the exertions of Captain Stackhouse, R.N., about 

 the beginning of the year 1875, so that it had been 10 years 

 in existence, and had, during that period, published annually 

 a volume, varying in size from 600 to 1400 pages with many 

 plates, containing entirely original matter contributed by mem- 

 bers of the Society. The estimation in which those publications 

 had been held by the world of science had been evidenced by the 

 Large number of scientific Societies, in all parts of the globe, 

 which had applied for an interchange of their publications with 

 them. But during all this period in which they had been build- 

 ing up the scientific reputation of the Society, they had been 

 labouring under serious difficulties of several kinds, but none so 

 great as the want of sufficient space to meet their requirements. 

 For the first year or so of the Society's existence, it occupied an 

 upstairs room in Hunter-street, extremely inconvenient and diffi- 

 cult of access. It then, for about three years, held its meetings 

 in a room in the Public Library, by the permission of the trus- 

 tees of that institution. The next move was to very excellent 

 and commodious apartments in the Garden Palace, which the 

 Government of the day had most liberally placed at their dis- 

 posal. Up till then they had no room for books or anything 

 else, and the scientific publications sent to them from foreign 



