8 



PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



Jackson. Moreover, attention was directed to other matters 

 besides the collection and acquisition of specimens, for Sir William 

 and Mr. Masters, with the occasional help of Professor Stephens 

 and Mr. Brazier, devoted much time to the sorting and 

 preservation of the marine and other forms. They also made a 

 brave beginning in the work of attempting to identify the repre- 

 sentatives of the species already known to science, but of which 

 named specimens were wanting in the Collection. Thirty years 

 ago such a task as this would be a very discouraging one to a 

 colonial zoologist. Sooner or later, Sir William must have 

 realised that he had upon his hands enough material, much of it 

 undescribed, to occup}^ the attention of several specialists for 

 some time; and that if it were to be turned to account, sooner or 

 later something would have to be done. 



At some such juncture as this, when Sir William was as busy 

 with the matter of museum development as he could well be, the 

 formation of a new Scientific Society was mooted. The following 

 is Sir William's account of how this came about, and to what it 

 led, until the doings of the Society began to be chronicled in the 

 Society's Proceedings. Of course it was never intended for pub- 

 lication, and it appears here as a continuous narrative because of 

 the omission of irrelevant matter . — 



Oct. 13th, 1874. — Dr. Alleyne and Captain Stackhouse are trying to get up 

 a Society of Natural History. I hope they may succeed. Such a Society, 

 embracing all branches of Natural History, and issuing a Monthly Magazine, 

 ought to be both- useful and successful. 



Oct. 24. — Stackhouse has a number of signatures to the Natural History 

 Society proposition, and has called them [the signatories] together to consult, 

 on Thursday next, at 4.30, at the Free Public Library. 



Oct. 29. — At 4 o'clock my cab came for ^me, but I did not go to town as 

 it threatened rain, and my cold is still troublesome. I sent an excuse to 

 Stackhouse, this being the day of the preliminary meeting of his proposed 

 Society. 



Oct. 30. — Stackhouse called this morning about preparing rules for the 

 new Society. At the meeting yesterday the name was fixed as "The 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales "; and I was elected President. . . 

 Stephens, Alleyne, Stackhouse, and I were for an hour at the Club this 

 afternoon drawing up rules for the Society. 



