619 



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25th, 1896. 



The Twenty-Second Annual General Meeting of the Society 

 was held in the Linnean Hall, Ithaca Road, Elizabeth Bay, on 

 Wednesday evening, March 25th, 1896. 



The President, Mr. Henry Deane, M.A., M. Inst. C.E., F.L.S., 

 etc., in the Chair. The minutes of the previous Annual General 

 Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The President then read the Annual Address. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



It was with very great diffidence that I accepted last year the 

 honourable position which you thought fit to confer upon me. It 

 seemed to me that the man who was selected to stand at the head 

 of such an important Society as this should be one, who, if not 

 actually professionally engaged in matters connected Avith the 

 science of biology, had sufficient leisure to permit of his devoting 

 a large amount of his energies to the subject. 



As you are, perhaps, aware I have for some years past found 

 my time both in and outside office hours so much engrossed in 

 matters pertaining to my profession, that the actual scientific 

 work that I am able to carry out is very small. You may there- 

 fore suppose that the preparation of an address of thi^description 

 is to me no light task, and I am sure you will accord me some 

 leniency, if it falls below the average of the able addresses 

 which my predecessors in this chair have accustomed you to. 



At the outset I may remind you that to-day we commemorate 

 the Society's coming of age. On the 13th of January, 1875, in 

 a rented room in Lloyd's Chambers, 362 George Street, the Society 

 held its First Annual General Meeting, and on the 25th of the 

 same month the First Monthly Meeting for the reading of papers 

 and the transaction of scientific business. In the history of a 

 corporation this may not be an event of such importance as it 



