8 president's address. 



the successive Parts of the Proceedings. I would remind Members of the Coun- 

 cil's injunction that the notices of exhibits at Meetings should be as brief as pos- 

 sible, and confined as far as possible to the scientific aspec*. of the specimens 

 shown. Members are asked also not to exhibit too great a variety of different 

 exhibits at the same Meeting, as this is likely to necessitate too complicated and 

 too lengthy entries in indexing them. 



Concomitantly with the growth of the Society's library, and of the natural 

 accumulation of its reserve-stock of publications, we have, foi- some yeai-s past, 

 felt a pressing need for more shelf-room, and more storage-room. During the 

 ]-eeess, the Council has provided for some imjaortaut structural alterations in the 

 Society's Hall, to meet these and other requirements, together with the installation 

 of the electric light, and for some necessary, new lavatory arrangements. These 

 have been completed in a very satisfactory manner by the contractor, Mr. James 

 Leckie, under the able superintendence of the architect. Mr. A. W. "Warden, in 

 time for the Annual Meeting. 



The year's work of the Society's research-staff may be summarised thus. 

 Dr. R. Greig Smith, Macleay Bacteriologist to the Society, contributed two papers 

 on "The Germicidal Activity of the Eucalyptus Oils," which appeared in Parts 

 i. and ii. of the Proceedings for 1919. He has also completed a paper '"Ropi- 

 ness in AVattle-bark Infusions," which will be communicated at this month's Meet- 

 ing. 



Dr. J. M. Petrie, Linnean Macleay Fellow of the Society in Biochemistry, 

 lias carried out an elaborate examination of the leaves, and also of the nuts, of 

 Macrozamia spiralis, but, in both cases, the extracts failed to yield evidence of 

 the presence of any poisonous substance, which was detrimental when fed to 

 animals. A considerable amount of experimental work has been carried out 

 with lleterodeiidrcm oleaefolia, in order to obtain the eyanogenetic glucoside which 

 is contained in the leaves. The active principle can be concentrated into viscous 

 syrup, but hitherto all attempts to induce it to yield a crystalline compound 

 have failed. The results of these two investigations will be communicated to the 

 Society, at an early date, in two papei-s, entitled, "The Chemistry of Macm- 

 zamia." and "The Stock-poison Heterndendron, including experiments on the 

 Hydrocyanic acid Content." In addition to the foregoing, woi'k is in progress 

 on the Native Pomegranate {Capparis Mit.chelli). which has proved to be an- 

 other cyano-genetic plant, though not hitherto known to be, or even suspected of 

 being poisonous. Also, a continuous series of cjuantitative experiments has been 

 made, to determine the amounts of hydrocyanic acid evolved from Zieria Smithii 

 under various conditions. 



Dr. R. J. Tillyard, Linnean Macleay Fellow ot the Society in Zoology, 

 conti-ibuted seven papers during the year, all of wlii(^h have been pub- 

 lished . These include — "On the Morphology and Systematic Position of the 

 Family Micropterygidae (sens, lat.), Introduction and Part i.; "Mesozoic Insects 

 of Queensland," Nos. 5, 6, and 7; "A Fossil Insect Wing belonging to the new 

 Order Paramecoptera, ancestral to the Triclio])(('ra and Lepidoptcra, from the 

 Upper Coal Measui-es of Newcastle, N.S.W."; "Studies in Australian Neurop- 

 tera," No. 8; and "The Panorpoid Complex. Part iii.'' Dr. Tillyard intenils to 

 continue woiking upon the life-histories of Australian Neuropteroid Insects, and 

 to make an attempt to bring the systematic knowledge of certain groups up to 

 date in order to facilitate his morphological work. In October, the Council 

 granted him porinissiim to visil New Zc;danil. in (ir<lci' to obtain imiiortant ma- 



