23 



Society, as the result of the representations of Charles Darwin, 

 who had carefully studied the Introduction to the Modern Classifica- 

 tion of Insects. More than one letter in Darwin's correspondence 

 deals with this very episode. 



Oxford is also specially appropriate for the first meeting of 

 the Congress in this country, because it is the seat of the most 

 ancient University in the British Empire, and because much that 

 is interesting and historic may be learnt in the intervals of the 

 varied and voluminous programme which has been arranged. 

 The Colleges have hospitably opened their doors to members 

 of the Congress, and those who are staying at Wadham, founded 

 in 1612, may remember that they are residing in a College of 

 special interest in relation to the history of science in tnis countiy ; 

 for it was at \A'adham that the Royal Society may be said to have 

 begun. A party of friends who met in the rooms of Warden WiL- 

 KINS — rooms still existing unchanged in the house of the present 

 Warden — afterwards continued their meetings in London, thus 

 creating the " Invisible College," which became the Royal Society. 

 Members of the Congress who have rooms in Merton will be living 

 in the earliest of all Collegiate buildings, and one which, founded 

 in 1264 and established in Oxford ten years later, served as the 

 type followed in both our ancient Universities. Members staying 

 at New College may like to remember that the foundation was 

 established as a kind of " new model " by William of Wykeham 

 in 1379. 



We have especially to thank the Warden of A\'adham for his 

 great generosity in lending his private garden to the members 

 for the whole of the week, so that there, close at hand, we can 

 refresh ourselves in the intervals between the meetings, and can 

 sit and talk in the evenings. We may indeed almost fancy our- 

 selves on the Continent, where beautiful surroundings are more 

 commonly put to such uses than in this country, w^hile some of 

 our friends, though still in Oxford, may now and then imagine 

 that they are at home. 



It will be our duty at the conclusion of the Congress to thank 

 the many friends who have helped us to prepare for the meeting, 

 but I must even now, at the very beginning, express our thanks to 

 one or two who have taken a special part in the work of organi- 

 sation. My friend. Dr. F. A. Dixey, F.R.S., being Bursar of 



