2 
mens of the Bee and the rare Spider. A second field day was 
arranged at Sandling Park in August, but only three or four names 
were sent in, so that it was given up. It is somewhat dishearten- 
ing to the efforts made by the committee, in answer to repeated 
requests for field days, that such a slight response is made to the 
invitations sent out. There is still considerable difficulty in 
obtaining papers to read at the monthly meetings, and we should 
be heartily glad of any offers that may be made to supply them 
during the present year. As the chief object for which our Society 
exists is to spread both the love and the knowledge of Natural 
History, we do not ask for learned papers, or for original investiga- 
tions (though such would be warmly welcomed), but rather for 
accounts of one’s own observations of animals and plants, or for 
one’s own thoughts in relation to the theories which are constantly 
being put forward, and the discoveries which are being made. 
Interesting discussions would necessarily take place, if we could by 
any means persuade some members thus to initiate them.” 
The President then read the following : 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
In reviewing the events of the last few years, two apparently 
antagonistic facts present themselves to the mind. On the one 
hand we are amazed at the ever increasing number of scientific 
inventions and appliances; on the other, we are forcibly reminded 
of the necessarily slow progress made in endeavouring to fathom 
the scientific laws themselves. I say necessarily slow, because 
although the application of scientific principles is continually being 
adapted to various novel and practical uses, yet research into the 
theory and cause of any one scientific law often occupies the life- 
time of one, aye, even of two or more generations, before its true 
nature can be grasped. 
Take for example, one of the most potent forces in nature, that 
of electricity. If we ask what is electricity? who can tell us? 
We know its effects, and to a certain extent we can control them, 
although the fact of our very limited knowledge, even on this point, 
has been only too painfully illustrated of late by the numerous 
accidents which have occurred in America, from imperfect insula- 
tion of the wires. Or again—what is the relation between electri- 
city and magnetism? Or what is the real nature of the force we - 
call magnetism? We have most of us seen how simple a thing it 
is to magnetise an iron bar, so that it has a north and a south 
pole; and we know that if we break that bar into splinters they 
