74 THE COMING OF AGE OF 



cases no longer on our list of members. This continuity of 

 association between past and present officers and the existing 

 Club, composed largely of a newer generation, is certainly a 

 remarkable feature in our history and is the best guarantee of 

 future stability. 



The fact that our list of members is now being recruited by 

 the younger generation that has arisen since the time of our 

 foundation is to me one of the healthiest signs of progress. 

 Those who have only joined our ranks in recent years, and who 

 are not familiar with our early history, may be interested to have 

 from one who has been for so long intimately associated with the 

 work of the Club a summary of the results which we have given 

 to the scientific world in justification of the position which we 

 assumed at the outset of our career. The inaugural address which 

 I had the honour of delivering from this chair on February 28th, 

 1880, and from which I have taken the liberty of quoting the few 

 extracts above, clearly defined our position as a scientific society. 

 I now claim the privilege as the deliverer of that first presidential 

 address, and by virtue of the office which you have again conferred 

 upon me, of summing up our achievements during the past twenty- 

 one years for the information of our newer members, for the 

 encouragement of our old and tried colleagues and for the benefit 

 of the future prosperity of the Society. 



It is not my intention on the present occasion to recapitulate 

 the steps in the history of the development of the Club, since a 

 concise summary was given in the Council Report for the year 

 igoo. and published in the Essex Naturalist (vol. XII., p. 37). 

 Neither do I intend to trouble you with the usual statistical 

 statements showing the fluctuations in the numbers of our mem- 

 bers, since these will be found in the various annual reports of 

 the Council. But with regard to the personnel of the Club I 

 should like to take advantage ot the present opportunity of going 

 over the death roll of our members in order to emphasize our 

 scientific strength in the past with a view to handing on to 

 the future that same scientific ideal which we have always 

 endeavoured to maintain. The list of Honorary Members as 

 it now stands, and which we have at this meeting strengthened 

 by the names of Sir Wm. Thiselton Dyer, Profs. E. Ray 

 Lankester, Marshall Ward, G. B. Howes and J, B. Farmer, 

 Messrs. C. H. Read, H. B. Woodward and W. H. Dalton, is 



