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THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

 By J. G. Waller, F.S.A. 



{Delivered February 19th, 1897.) 



Gentlemen, — My year of office having terminated, a duty, the 

 result of a time-honoured custom, devolves upon me to address 

 a few words unto you. Nor can I think lightly of a task which 

 I, a mere amateur, am called upon to perform, following, as I do, 

 men of high repute, who have left the results of special work 

 behind them, But, as you have done me the honour of placing 

 me in this chair, I will endeavour to do my duty towards you, 

 relying upon that kind consideration which has always been 

 shown unto me. And here, let me express my obligations to the 

 worthy officers of the Club, who have made my position an easy 

 one, and thus have earned my best thanks. 



Being then an amateur, I must address you as one of the 

 brotherhood, and, if I ramble hither and thither in devious 

 ways, which has been my course in science, I hope that you will 

 pardon me if I enter a little into my own personality, and 

 glance to the advances made in my time, and to some aberra- 

 tions inevitable in all inquiries. Jt is good for all, however 

 much employed in the purposes of life, to have a hobby, that is, 

 an intellectual occupation for leisure hours. It is as if the eyes 

 weary of one view seek relief in another. It thus becomes a 

 recreation of a most healthy character, and has a moral 

 influence upon the understanding. It is not usual for one in 

 my professioD, though specially one for the study of nature, to 

 seek it further in natural history by the microscope, as one of 

 our hobbies. But the popularity of this mode of intellectual 

 recreation in England was particularly noted some years ago 

 by two German professors of the University of Freiburg — 

 Herr Doctor Weismann and Herr Weidesheim — whom a friend 

 of mine, and a member of our Club, met at a meeting of the 

 British Association. He invited them to his house at Side up, 



