PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 365 



acknowledged how much they were indebted to Mr. Crisp for his 

 exertions in helping on the Journal, and indeed he could hardly 

 tell them in how many important ways this had been done. In the 

 name of the Society, therefore, he had great pleasure in presenting 

 Mr. Crisp with two bound volumes of the Journal for 1878 and 1879, 

 as a very small acknowledgment of their high appreciation of his 

 services. (Two volumes, handsomely bound in red morocco and with 

 a suitable inscription, were then handed to Mr. Crisp by the President 

 amidst the applause of the Meeting.) 



Mr. Crisp said, " I am much indebted to the Meeting for the cordi- 

 ality with which they have received the resolution. The Society can 

 now fairly claim that they have paid me out in my own coin. It is 

 not by any means however as a figure of speech that I say the only 

 reward I wish to receive for anything undertaken is that it may 

 be crowned with success, which will of itself be ample reward. 



" I hope I am not too sanguine in believing that the results of a 

 certain amount of hard work in recent months are beginning to be 

 manifested both in regard to the internal condition of the Society and 

 also its external relations. As to the former, it can hardly be doubted 

 that the vitality of the Society has increased, as may be seen from the 

 larger attendance at the meetings, and in other ways, notable among 

 which is the fact that Fellows have voluntarily come forward and 

 paid their subscriptions upon the modern scale on the ground of the 

 additional benefits they receive. As to the Society's external relations, 

 I think it will be found that we have efiected a great change for the 

 better, the Society now being in communication with most of the 

 provincial societies and with nearly every important biological society 

 throughout the Old and New World. 



" There is only one little point that I have ever heard suggested, 

 and tliat is that the expenditure of the Society has increased, and I ask 

 for a few minutes to deal with that question. 



" When we remember, as some of us will remember, how narrowly 

 the Council has had in recent years to scrutinize the proposed ex- 

 penditure of comparatively small sums, it is of course a little startling 

 to find that after investing all the composition fees received and fitting 

 up the new room (out of the cash in hand) at an expense of lOOZ., wo 

 have increased our publication expenditure by 120/., our postages by 

 more than 20/., and other expenses by more than GO/. This, however, 

 is looking at only one side of the picture, and will always be startling 

 if we look only at that. It must, however, be borne in mind that if 

 our expenses have been greater our receipts have also increased by the 

 same amount. 



" If we were to attempt to lay down any principle to guide us in 

 the administration of oiar finances, I should say that if we liavc invest- 

 ments in hand to represent all the money that lias ever been given us 

 by way of logacies or otherwise, and if in addition wo have also in 

 band all the money paid by existing Fellows for their compositions, 

 wo have done all that is required of us. But in fact we have gone 

 beyond this, and we are now endeavouring to reach tho point when 

 the interest on our investments will produce a sum equal to that of 



