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THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



By John F. W. Tatham, M.A., M.D., 



Fellow of the Koyal College of Physicians. 



{Delivered February nth, 1899.) 



At the close of my first year's tenure of the position which I 

 owe to your good will, and certainly not to any merit of my own, 

 I proceed to fulfil the customary duty which our regulations very 

 properly impose upon the occupant of the presidential chair — 

 namely, that of giving, at the appointed time, a formal account 

 of his stewardship. In so doing, I shall not take advantage of 

 my opportunity to inflict upon you a scientific dissertation ; nor, 

 indeed, should I have felt at liberty so to do in any case, even 

 had the limited leisure at my disposal permitted of my making 

 the necessary preparation. I have chosen rather to adopt a 

 humbler course, and to offer you some brief comments of my own 

 on a few of the chief developments of our Art which have taken 

 place, or which have come under the notice of the Club, during 

 the past year. This course, which I freely admit to have been 

 determined quite as much by external circumstances as by 

 personal choice, commends itself to my judgment for many 

 reasons, and in our Club it has the important sanction of 

 precedent. 



Ever since its inauguration, some thirty-four years ago, the 

 history of the Quekett Microscopical Club has been one of 

 unchequered success. It was established, as our records tell us, 

 " for the purpose of affording to experienced microscopists, as well 

 as to students, regular and frequent opportunities of discussing 

 those special subjects in which they are mutually interested, and 

 also for promoting field excursions to the well-known collecting 

 districts around the Metropolis." 



It is my pleasing duty to announce that, throughout the year 

 just closed, our Club has fully justified the anticipations of its 

 promoters, under every one of the headings above mentioned. The 



