THE president's ADDRESS. 181 



reports of our Secretary and Treasurer (which have ah'eady been 

 presented to you) show that, speaking generally, our Club still 

 continues to progress satisfactorily ; but both these officers unite 

 in accentuating the duty which we all recognise, of doing the 

 utmost, individually, to repair the breaches in our ranks which 

 inevitably occur as years roll on ; and thus to maintain, for 

 the future, that modest income without which our Club cannot 

 continue in its present useful and prosperous condition. 



For my own part, I cannot account for the fact that in a 

 situation so central and convenient as that in which we are 

 privileged to hold our meetings, our membership list still con- 

 tinues to be so small, and this in spite of the persistent efforts 

 which many of us make to increase it. Our annual subscription 

 surely is sufficiently low ; our Council exact no additional fee on 

 admission ; our members have access to one of the most valuable 

 natural history libraries to be found anywhere, as well as to a 

 trustworthy and varied assortment of microscopical preparations 

 by the best mounters of the present as well as the past ; and all 

 these treasures are available for the inspection and use of members, 

 on reasonable conditions. When it is remembered, further, that 

 each member receives, without additional charge, two journals in 

 the course of the year, containing full accounts of our proceedings, 

 and either abstracts or detailed reprints of such papers as are 

 deemed worthy of record by our Council ; that our Excursion 

 Committee arrange annually about a dozen visits to places of 

 interest to naturalists ; and, what is not less important, secure 

 on economical terms refreshments and railway tickets without 

 trouble to individual members, — when all these advantages are 

 offered, in return for a subscription which is merely nominal, 

 it is, I repeat, surprising that naturalists generally do not avail 

 themselves in greater numbers than at present of the membership 

 of our Club. 



Keferring, in the first place, to the improvements which have 

 taken place since our last annual meeting in the practical 

 application of the microscope, it is satisfactory to know that, if 

 there is no startling discovery to announce within that period, 

 nevertheless a considerable amount of substantial, if unobtrusive, 

 progress has been made. The honorary Editor of our Journal, 

 than whom no living man has done more on behalf of practical 

 microscopy, has enriched our pages with two more of his excellent 



JouRN. Q. M. C, Series IL — No. 44. 13 



