xxviii AiDuial Report of the Council. 



Dr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S., Lee's Reader in Chemistry 

 in the University of Oxford, was invited to deHver the Wilde 

 Lecture for 1909. The Lecture, on " The Influence of Moisture 

 on Chemical Change," was delivered on Tuesday, ]\Larch 9th, 

 1909. 



The Linnean Society of London celebrated on July ist, 

 1908, the fiftieth anniversary of the readirig of the joint essay by 

 Charles Darwin and A. R. Wallace, entitled "On the Tendency 

 of Species to form Varieties ; and on the Perpetuation of 

 Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection," and this 

 Society was represented by Mr. Charles Bailey, M.Sc, F. L.S. 



The University Museum of Oxford celebrated its Jubilee on 

 October Sth, 190S, and this Society was represented by the 

 President, Professor H. B. Dixon, NLA., F.R.S., who presented the 

 following address which had been approved by the Members : — 



To the Vice- Cha7icellor of the University of Oxford. 



"We, the Council of the Manchester Literary and 

 " Philosophical Society, desire to offer to the University of 

 " Oxford our greetings and congratulations on the celebration 

 "of the Jubilee of the University Museum. 



"Meeting, as our Council does, in the workroom of John 

 " Dalton, we think it not unfitting to recall that the concep- 

 "tion of the chemical elements on which Dalton founded 

 " his Atomic Theory, originated with Robert Boyle, at 

 " Oxford ; and that the recognition by chemists of the 

 " diatomic molecules of Avugadro (which reconciled the 

 " conflicting views of Dalton and of Gay-Lussac) was largely 

 "due to the work carried out by Brodie in the Chemical 

 " Laboratory of the Oxford Museum. 



" We have watched with the keenest interest the extensions 

 "of the Oxford Museum, and the widening scope of its 

 "activities and usefulness; we are glad to recognise that 

 "this increase accompanies and symbolises the growth in 



