REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



I 



The Annual Report, which, in accordance with the pro- 

 visions of their Charter, the Council of the Zoological So- 

 ciety now present to the Fellows, will be found to contain 

 some of the most remarkable results which have yet been 

 recorded in the progress of their affairs. 



T. GENERAL ESTABLISHMENT. 



1. Members. 



a. Election of the President. 



On the 2nd of July, 1851, the distinguished nobleman 

 who for twenty years had been successively re-elected 

 President of the Society, expired at Knowsley, a place 

 which, through his labours, will long remain celebrated 

 in the literature of Zoology. 



The late Earl of Derby was intimately connected with 

 the Society from its first foundation, in which Sir Hum- 

 phry Davy, Sir Stamford Raffles, the late Earl of Auck- 

 land, and other friends of science co-operated with him. 

 On the retirement of the Marquis of Lansdowne from the 

 President's chair, the Earl of Derby, at the solicitation of 

 the Council, consented to accept the vacant office, and he 

 continued to take an active part in the management of the 

 Institution until the state of his health compelled him to 

 reside at Knowsley during the greater part of the year. 



In his retirement there, however, he was constantly oc- 

 cupied in the promotion of his favourite study, and, 

 especially during the latter years of his life, maintained a 

 constant correspondence with the Secretaries on the busi- 

 ness of the Society, M'hose prosperity he was ever anxious 

 to promote both by his advice and by his influence. 



The gradual amelioration of its finances, the improve- 



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