[ “xey 
THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
My first words must be to congratulate the Society on 
its continued prosperity. In my young days, when the Mem- 
bers met in an uncarpeted room and sat on wooden benches, 
the Society produced good results; and the Turkey carpet 
and leather-covered chairs have not in the least impaired our 
powers, for we still do plenty of hard work, and that of a 
progressive character, in the interest of Entomological Science. 
The papers in our Transactions are varied and most useful, 
and I am glad that some of them are contributed by friends 
living abroad who are able to furnish us with notes on the 
life-histories of species of which we only know the dried 
imagines. 
_ The notes and short papers in the Proceedings are of more 
than ordinary interest, and embrace many various subjects. I 
need not go into details, 
I regret to have to put on record the decease of several 
Fellows :— 
JoHN Emmerson Rosson died on February 28th last at the 
age of 74. He resided at Hartlepool, and was known in the 
North of England as a zealous Lepidopterist. He was per- 
haps best known as the editor from 1879 to 1893 of the 
“Young Naturalist,’ or as it was afterwards called the 
“ British Naturalist.” Besides editing this periodical, he was 
a frequent contributor to its pages. His most important 
work was the “ Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Northumber- 
land, Durham and Neweastle-on-Tyne.” This is a great deal 
more than a mere list of names, as there are observations 
of interest on most of the species. Unfortunately he only 
