( li) 
an inroad upon one’s time and energies is inseparable from 
the efficient discharge of the duties of that position. I have 
for some time past thought that the Society, considering its 
growth and more established status of late years, and the 
consequent increase of the work attendant on its proper 
administration, would do well to follow the example of 
the other Chartered Societies devoted to Natural Science, 
by appointing a paid Assistant-Secretary to conduct the 
ordinary routine business under the direction of the 
Secretaries. In Mr. J. J. Walker and Mr. C. J. Gahan, who 
have accepted election as Secretaries, we are fortunate in 
obtaining officers whose proved entomological attainments are 
ample warrant for the maintenance of that devotion to the 
Society’s interests which has marked the service of the 
retiring Secretaries. 
I join with you in welcoming, as my successor in the Pre- 
sidency, Mr. George Henry Verrall, who is well known to us 
all as an entomologist, and specially as a dipterist, of high 
standing, and also as one of our oldest Members and Fellows, 
who has repeatedly served on the Council and as Vice- 
. President. Mr. Verrall has in every way shown unfailing 
interest in the well-being of the Society, and has done much 
to promote it both scientifically and socially; and it will 
certainly not be his fault if the Society does not flourish 
during his occupancy of the Chair. 
OBITUARY. 
Although numerically our losses by death during 1898 have 
been small, it is a matter of great regret to miss from 
our roll of Fellows—and in one case from our Council 
and Society Meetings—two such highly-distinguished ento- 
mologists as Osbert Salvin and Ernest Candéze. Among the 
few deaths outside the limits of our Society, special mention 
should be made of the late Joseph A. Lintner, State Entomo- 
logist of New York ; William M. Maskell, a notable authority 
on the Coccide ; and James Thomson, the well known coleo- 
pterist, of Paris. 
