Proceedings. xxxix 



application to the Librarian, and retained for a reasonable time. 

 It is probable that many members are not aware of these privi- 

 leges, and that this is the reason why more use is not made of 

 the library and micro cabinet. It is to be hoped that the Club 

 may one day possess a microscope of its own with all necessary 

 apparatus complete. 



The collection of shells, corals, fossils and minerals, generously 

 presented to the Club by the family of the late Dr. Alfred 

 Carpenter, has been mounted in cases during the year under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Lovett. 



Glancing now at the future of the Club, I do not see why it 

 should not have a long lease of prosperity before it. We were 

 told by our last lecturer that those animals survive in the 

 struggle for existence which can adapt themselves to changing 

 conditions, and we endeavour to do so. It must be admitted 

 that the conditions affecting the life of a club such as ours have 

 somewhat changed since its establishment, now nearly a quarter 

 of a century ago. Natural science is now taught in other ways, 

 as by technical classes and university extension courses, so that 

 persons whose bent lies in that direction are not necessarily 

 attracted to the Club. The microscope, with which the Club 

 was at first especially concerned, though more indispensable 

 than ever as an instrument of research, has somewhat gone out 

 of fashion as the amusement of the amateur, having been sup- 

 planted by the photographic camera. In a district so well known 

 as Surrey, it is not likely that many additions to the fauna and 

 flora remain to be made by the field naturalist, save in certain 

 critical groups, and in the minuter and less studied invertebrate 

 and cryptogamic orders. These comparatively neglected orders 

 however well deserve attention ; the microscope reveals to us a 

 world of beauty and interest in the lower forms of animal and 

 vegetable life, and the work of Darwin bears witness to the im- 

 portance in the economy of nature of so humble and apparently 

 uninteresting an animal as the earthworm. There is much yet 

 to be learned about the hfe-history of even famihar animals and 

 plants, especially by watching them through the various stages 

 of their existence. A wide field for observation also remains 

 open in tracing the various modes in which living beings are able 

 to secure for themselves a place in the competition for existence 

 by obtaining food, by protecting themselves against the attacks 

 of their enemies, and by promoting fertilization, and making 

 provision for the welfare of the young. Even the artificial state 

 of things, as we call it, caused by the growth of human popula- 

 tion merely introduces a new set of conditions into the struggle 

 for existence, to which some species are able to adapt themselves, 

 while others are not. Thus while some wild birds seek safety in 



