( lxvi ) 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, 



You will no doubt agree with the Council in considering 

 the Report they have presented to you, as well as that of the 

 Auditors, to be on the whole satisfactory. That we have a 

 balance of a few pounds in hand, and that our invested 

 money has increased from the small sum of £365 to the 

 rather less small sum of ±'895 is satisfactory, inasmuch as it 

 shows that your Treasurer and Council have been prudent, 

 and have kept you quite free from financial embarrassment. 

 But I am sorry to say this has only been accomplished by a 

 sacrifice you will unanimously regret : we have deferred till 

 1888 expenditure that we wished to make — -that we ought to 

 have made — in 1887. You will, no doubt, have noticed that 

 Part IV of the volume of our ' Transactions ' for the year is 

 unusually small : this is due not to the lack of scientific 

 matter but to insufficiency of pence ; and we greatly regret 

 having been obliged to defer till the volume for 1888 the 

 papers read in 1887 by Prof. Westwood, Messrs. J. Edwards, 

 A. G. Butler, F. Merrifield, and Gervase Mathew. The 

 publication of good papers being one of the most important 

 functions of our Society, it is greatly to be wished that the 

 number of its Fellows should increase, as only by this means 

 can it be hoped to do what is required. A list of 300 names, 

 especially including as it docs a considerable number of 

 foreign savants, is not a sufficient roll for the Entomological 

 Society of London, and is far in arrear of that attained by 

 some of the Entomological Societies of the Continent. 



There is another point not mentioned in the Council's 

 Report to which I think it well to draw your attention, and 

 that is the heavy duties that fall on our Honorary Librarian, 



