8 



number of the Fellows elected since this alteration took 

 effect, and of the Candidates now on the Books, has not 

 diminished as compared with the same period of 1S32. 



General Meetings fm- Scientific Business. 



A third alteration in the By-Laws, which has taken place 

 in the past year, relates immediately to the objects for 

 which the Society was instituted. It had originally ap- 

 peared probable that the whole of the business, both gene- 

 ral and scientific, might be transacted at the Monthly Meet- 

 ings, and it was accordingly arranged that the exhibi- 

 tion of specimens, and the cdimunication of notices on 

 subjects of Zoological Interest, should form part of the 

 ordinary proceedings at those Meetings. The great ex- 

 tent, however, of the general business was soon found to 

 interfere with such an arrangement. The number of the 

 Elections, and of the recommendations of Candidates, the 

 Reports on the progress of the Society in its several Esta- 

 blishments during each month, and other business, were 

 found to require so much time as to leave little for Scien- 

 tific Communications; and the Council saw, with regret, 

 that these were frequently and necessarily postponed to 

 matters of more pressing but less permanent interest. To 

 obviate this inconvenience, and to afford opportunities for 

 the reception and discussion of communications upon Zoo- 

 logical Subjects, the Council had recourse to the institution 

 of a Committee of Science and Correspondence, open 

 almost from its commencement to every Member of the 

 Society. Its Meetings were held on two evenings in every 

 month, and were continued for more than two years. The 

 extent and interest of the information brought before the 

 Commiltee, have been adverted to by the Council in their 

 Annual Report for 1831, and again in that for 1832; they 

 are known to the Members at large, as well as to Scientific 

 Men generally, by the Abstracts of its Proceedings, which 

 have been published from time to time, and freely dis- 

 tributed both in England and elsewhere. The proofs af- 



