XXX iv Atmual Report of tJie Council. 



Professor Larmor was also invited to deliver the Wilde 

 Lecture for 1908. The Lecture on "The Physical Aspect of 

 the Atomic Theory " was delivered and the Medal was presented 

 on Tuesday, March 3rd, 1908. 



In response to a request made by the Smithsonian Institution 

 of Washington, the Council resolved "that a set of the 

 Society's publications, as complete as possible, be sent to the 

 Californian Academy of Sciences to take the place of the set 

 destroyed by the conflagration of San Francisco in April, 

 1906." 



The Council resolved that the following document, appre- 

 ciative of the work of Carl von Linne, be sent to the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, to be read on May 23rd, 1907, the 

 occasion of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of his 

 birth. 



"The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 

 " willingly joins with the New York Academy of Sciences, in 

 "its commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the 

 " birth of the illustrious Linnreus. 



" His profound insight into the affinities and disresem- 

 " blances of organised beings ; his vivid differentiation of 

 " natural groups ; his pithy crisp characterization of orders, 

 "genera, and species, and his binomial principle of 

 " nomenclature, all exercised a profoundly stimulating 

 "influence upon the progress of biological science. 



" Nor must the personal merits of the man pass 

 "unrecognised; his acknowledgment of the work of his 

 "predecessors; his self-sacrificing labours; the enthusiasm 

 " with which he inspired his students ; and his remarkable 

 " humility — so fittingly commemorated in the Liiinaa 

 " borealis — are qualities which provoke the admiration of 

 "naturalists, alike in the liemispliere in which he worked, 



