Ixii 



THE CHAIEMAN'S ADDEESS. 



Gentlemen, 



By the absence of our President the Annual Meetmg is shorn 

 of its chief attraction : the cause of that absence can but intensif}^ 

 our regret. Death has removed one of our Vice-Presidents ; and 

 the multiplicit}' of the engagements of my surviving colleague has 

 prevented him from preparing the Anniversar}' Address to which I 

 had hoped to listen. 



In the Society's infancy a few unpremeditated remarks appear 

 to have been all that was expected on such an occasion. But as 

 increasing years and growing strength gave it position among the 

 scientific bodies of the metropolis, successive occupants of 

 the Chair have availed themselves of this opportunity of vindi- 

 cating the Society's choice of its temporary head ; and when 

 I recall the Presidential Addresses that have been delivered by 

 him whose place I so unworthily fill, or b}^ such predecessors as 

 Bates and Wallace, Saunders and Westwood, it only remains for 

 me to deplore the combination of circumstances which has 

 provided you with so inefficient a stop-gap. To me Entomology 

 is only a plaything, and my entomological reading, at all times 

 limited, has of late been, b}^ other avocations, reduced to a 

 vanishing point. I have nothing of scientific value to communi- 

 cate, either original or acquired ; and at once discarding all 

 attempt to instruct, I propose to return to the primitive habit of 

 our earlier days, and confine myself to some discursive observa- 

 tions about ourselves and our own concerns. Even larger and 

 wealthier communities cannot altogether disregard home affairs, 

 and find it necessary to pay some attention to the state of their 

 finances. 



The Annual Report of the Council has been read, and has, I 

 trust, been found satisfactory. I invite remarks thereon, for this 

 evening's meeting is the opportunity our constitution affords for 



