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numbers are concerned, but at the same time cannot refrain from 

 adding that the small attendance at the evening meetings, when 

 members have so kindly come forward to supply information on the 

 various topics with which they are conversant, is by no means 

 complimentary to those members or a satisfactory feature in the 

 working of the Club. Any suggestion wiU in the meantime be 

 gladly received how this difficulty can for the future be remedied. 



H. H. WINWOOD, Hon. Sec. 



Address of the President after the Anniversary Dinner, Feb. 1 9, 1872. 

 Gentlemen,— In my last year's address the subject I chiefly 

 spoke about was Biology. I propose on the present occasion- 

 before adverting to the affairs of the Club itself— to draw your 

 attention to a very different branch of science, but one scarcely of 

 less interest or importance — one which conies legitimately withm 

 the field of our operations, and for the advancement of which our 

 Club, I think, has it in its power to do something— I allude to 

 Meteorology. Meteorology is a veiy young science ; the youngest 

 perhaps of all the Natural Sciences, if it may be included in that 

 class, except Anthropology. I remember when the late Principal 

 Forbes read his " Report on Meteorology" at the first Oxford 

 meeting of the British Association in 1832, many who heard it 

 said that the science was so completely in its infancy, and had so 

 little to show for itself, any report upon the subject was premature. 

 That report, however, which would have been still useful had it 

 only pointed out the deficiencies of our knowledge, at once gave 

 the science a start; and from that time to this it has gone on 

 continually advancing and attracting more and more the notice, 

 not merely of scientific men, but of the public generally. Societies 

 for the cultivation of it have sprung up both in England and 

 Scotland, to say nothing of those abroad, and perhaps at the present 

 day there are nearly as many meteorologists in this country as 

 there are naturalists. 



The test of a science having made sure and considerable progress, 

 and of its being based upon correct observation, is its power to 



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