2 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



lucid and very interesting resume of the proceedings of the Club 

 during its existence. The second lustrum has now closed, and 

 I was desirous that the members should be presented with a 

 narrative of its researches and observations during that period. 

 I could not hope that any such narrative prepared by me would 

 have been a fitting companion for that of Dr. Embleton, which 

 I have had great pleasure in circulating, and which I have good 

 reason to believe has been mainly instrumental in the formation 

 of two Clubs with similar objects — one in Cheshire, the other 

 in Lincolnshire — which are now earnestly pursuing their 

 career of usefulness. I believed, however, that my fellow- 

 members would receive kindly any exertion on their behalf, 

 either for their instruction or amusement; but a tedious illness 

 during several months of the year of my office, the subsequent 

 loss of time in search of renewed health, with the accumulation 

 of professional duties, meanwhile, have rendered it imperatively 

 necessary that I should abandon the attempt, and confine myself 

 to a succinct narrative of the proceedings of the Club during the 

 year. I do hope, however, that some one or more of my succes- 

 sors may be more fortunate in following the examjDle so ably set 

 by Dr. Embleton, and that w^e may have such a summary of the 

 subsequent proceedings as will, in a condensed form, exhibit the 

 usefulness of the Club to its members, and the value of its 

 transactions to the student of Natural History. 



The First Field Meeting of the year 1857, was held at Prest- 

 wick Car, on the 19tli May. A party of eight members were con- 

 veyed to Dinnington by a " break" engaged for the occasion, and 

 a party of students from the Neville Hall College of Medicine 

 joined the Club on the Car, or rather on the ground which it 

 once occupied, for the Car has been so much reduced by recent 

 draining operations as to have lost its characteristic attractions; 

 and the numerous rare and interesting objects of Natural History 

 which found sustenance in its waters or on its banks, and which 

 had afforded the more scientific members of our Club so much 

 delight in former years, have nearly disappeared. Had the 

 draining been a profitable speculation, it might have afforded 



