( xlvi ) 



by death, and our own Transactions and other works shew the 

 valuable studies that he carried out in the Lepidoptera. He 

 has been a Fellow since 1883. 



Mr. Thos. Glazebrook Rylands, who was elected a Fellow of 

 this Society in 1894, has also died during the past year. 



Gentlemen, a year ago I held strongly to the principle 

 that a Presidential Address should be founded on subjects 

 which might be of general interest to all Fellows of the 

 Society, and that it should not be confined to some special sub- 

 ject which commended itself to a limited number of students. 

 I have been told that the best parts of my Address last year 

 were those in which I more especially referred to Dipterology, 

 because that was the subject which I probably understood 

 best, but I know that any remarks on that branch of Ento- 

 mology would commend themselves to but a very few of you, 

 and I still hold to the opinion which I then expressed ; and in 

 the remarks which I am now about to make to you, I intend 

 to refer to subjects which I think should be of general interest 

 to all of you, no matter what your specialty may be ; I use the 

 word specialty intentionally, because all Entomologists of the 

 present day must devote themselves to some limited study if 

 they desire to do any good and valuable work, but yet there 

 are general subjects which all must study in common. One 

 must be able to read before one can understand descriptions, 

 and one must be able to write before one can describe species, 

 but I hold that beyond that one must be able to read descrip- 

 tions in various languages befoi-eone can ventui'e to endeavour 

 to name n species, and one must be able to spell correctly 

 before one should publish descriptions. I believe that these 

 two statements are truisms which will commend themselves to 

 almost all of you, and so it is upon these two points that I wish 

 to address you. I intend to consider to-night (1) Descriptions 

 and Types. (2) Orthography. I know that on both these 

 subjects I am dealing with matters on which there are great 

 divergencies of opinion, but I prefer to deal with subjects 

 on which there is a strong difference of opinion, as I think 

 that all of you must take an interest in them. 



