iS PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



be slain at a great meeting when his term of office had expired, 

 you permit him to retire with his hfe into the obscurity from 

 which you raised him — so long as he is able to hand on the work 

 and the tradition of the Society unimpaired to his successor, and 

 the only sacrifice you demand is that he should' render some 

 account of his time by addressing you upon the affairs of the 

 Society, and upon some aspect of one or other of those sciences 

 which you cultivate. 



I have been privileged to occupy this Chair during a most 

 interesting pei-iod in the history of the Society. In the first of 

 these four sessions (1904-5) the Fellows adopted the new code of 

 bye-laws, and as a result the Fellowship of the Society was thrown 

 open to duly qualified scientific women on equal terms with men. 

 In all, 41 such women have now been elected ; and of these, six 

 have read papers while others have taken part in our discussions, 

 and one (Miss Sargant) has served on Council and Committees. 

 The added gain and strength to the Society is recognised and 

 appreciated by us all. 



In all, about 150 new Fellows have been elected in the four years, 

 and 100 have died or resigned during the same period ; so the 

 Society is growing, although not so rapidly as some of us would 

 wish. This is a Society to which all active original workers in 

 Biology should desire to belong, and the more experience I have 

 of its meetings the more I am impressed with the value of that 

 association and co-operation of Botanists and Zoologists which we 

 still enjoy but which has been lost in many Natural History 

 Societies and in the Sections of the British Association. 



The work brought before us dui'ing the last four years has been 

 large in amount and seems to be increasing. No less than 52 

 papers have been communicated during the present session. A 

 considerable number of those papers have come to this Society as 

 the result of the arrangement made with the Trustees of the 

 Percy Sladen Memorial, whereby we have undertaken to publish 

 the Reports of the First Percy Sladen Expedition in a series of six 

 large volumes — to meet the expenses of w hich the Trusi contributes 

 largely. Of the first volume three parts have already appeared, 

 and the fourth is now in our Secretaries' hands and will be out 

 before long. 



The Society is also publishing in the Zoological Journal a series 

 of reports upon the collections made by Mr. Cyril Crosslaud on 

 the Sudanese coast of the Bed Sea — a coral region of considerable 

 faunistic interest. Amongst other papers of special interest 

 this session the following have given rise to important discus- 

 sions : — Dr. Archdall Eeid's " Mendelism and Sex," Mr. A. W. 

 Sutton's " Brassica Crosses " and " Tuber-bearing Solanums," and 

 Mr. Clement Reid's " Preglacial Fruits and Seeds." 



Our loss by death among the older Fellows has been unusually severe, 

 including as it does such notable veterans of science as Professor 

 Newton, Dr. Masters, Professor Charles Stewart, Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, Sir James Hector, Sir Richard Strachey, and Dr. Sorby. 



