THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. \<)~) 



discoveries, it remains for us to consider whether, by adopting 

 any other means, we can secure the same advantages, without 

 entailing upon ourselves those evils which are inseparable 

 from the plan just mentioned. And here it is with sincere 

 pleasure that I am enabled to mention the Zoological Society 

 of London in those terms of praise, which, upon every occa- 

 sion, I should have been most willing to concede to it. Its 

 Council saw the rock upon which others were splitting, and 

 had the prudence and wisdom to avoid it. Far from thinking 

 that the reputation of the Society would be raised in the esti- 

 mation of the scientific world, or of the public, by the sending 

 forth of an imposing hot-pressed quarto volume of Trans- 

 actions, they made use of one of the best of our scientific 

 journals as the channel for communicating, in a condensed 

 form, all that was essential of their scientific labours : and 

 these abstracts, subsequently printed in a detached form, are 

 sold for a mere trifle, and thus become accessible to the poorest 

 student. It is only very lately, at a time, as we may fairly 

 suppose, when the Society have accumulated funds for such 

 an additional expense, that they have commenced a regular 

 volume of Transactions, which every one will hail with plea- 

 sure, if the alteration does not supersede the admirable plan at 

 first adopted. 



It is to this particular subject, more, perhaps, than to any 

 other, that I venture to call the unprejudiced attention of the 

 Society at large, and of the Council in particular, because it 

 appears to me, and to several with whom I have conversed, 

 the only plan which will enable us to act up to the principle 

 we set out with considering as an axiom, namely, that if the 

 same object can be accomplished as effectually without expense, 

 as it can be done, by a different method, with expense, it is 

 our bounden duty to prefer the former. 



Let us, however, upon such an important and interesting 

 question, go a little deeper into the matter, and putting aside 

 both theory and general experience, come to calculations, 

 estimates, and figures. Suppose, then, we decided upon 

 publishing our Transactions, and that they appeared in octavo 

 parts (for we could hardly aspire to a quarto) every three months. 

 We could not bring out a thinner pamphlet, or at a higher 

 price, than one of the numbers of this magazine ; nor could a 

 less number be printed than 'loO copies. Having had some 



