LIITNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. livii 



amount of ^300 ; and although. I should be of opinion that a portion 

 of the sums received from Life Members should be added to those 

 contributed by our other Pellows in order to meet our legitimate 

 amount of expenditure, yet I trust we shall continue in each year 

 to add to our permanent capital, or lay out in additions to our library 

 or other valuable property an amount nearly equivalent to these 

 compositions, leaving a sufficient annual income to increase rather 

 than diminish the extent of our publications. 



But if I thus dwell with complacency on the prosperous state of 

 our financial affairs, compared especially with what they were when 

 Mr. Bell first took the Chair in 1853, let it not be supposed that I 

 should willingly acquiesce in any relaxation of your efforts still further 

 to increase that prosperity. The demands upon the funds of a Society 

 established for the encouragement of natural science only multiply 

 as the study of that science advances and becomes more general. 

 The number of new works which we ought to add to our library for 

 the use of our working members is greater eveiy year ; and much as 

 we have extended our publications, we would wish to do so still 

 more. New theories and speculations, popular and elementary works, 

 find indeed that ready sale in the general world which renders them 

 independent of associations like ours ; but we must facilitate the 

 publication of abstract researches and records of observation of 

 detail, which are often remunerative only in the inverse proportion of 

 their value ; for we may thus assist in g-uarding against the perversion 

 of the science by the multitude of crude but showy works issued in 

 its name to please the paying public, I sincerely tmst, therefore, 

 that not only will our present members continue that support which 

 is so necessary for our objects, but that they will induce such of 

 their friends as feel an interest in natural science, and have either 

 time or means at command, to join us in promoting the common 

 cause. It has always appeared to me a mistaken idea that the 

 Fellows of the Linnean Society should be limited to those who have 

 shown a proficiency in natural science ; we should hope indeed to 

 include all such in our body ; but they require the encouragement 

 of friends and patrons, and work "s\T.th increased zeal when aided by 

 the association of those lovers of natural history, who, having little 

 leisure to devote to it, contribute nevertheless to our means, attend 

 occasionally our meetings, glance over our proceedings, and generally 

 watch our progress. 



With respect to the working Fellows of the Society, whose numbers 

 have augmented so much of late years, I trust it will not be thought 

 presumptuous on my part if, in enumerating a few of the principal 



