XXX 
The President then read the following Address :— 
THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
GENTLEMEN, 
The recurrence of our Anniversary Meeting calls 
upon me to mention some of the principal subjects which have 
occupied the attention of our fellow-labourers at home and abroad 
during the past year; and, in epitomising the results of their 
investigations, to render these materials available as an induce- 
ment to prosecute further researches in that branch of Natural 
History to which this Society is specially devoted. 
With the full consciousness of our obligations to the Linnean 
Society for the facilities afforded us by the use of their rooms 
during a considerable period; and, no less so, of the kindred 
relations which still unite us in the future; we cannot but 
congratulate ourselves in having now attained an independent 
position, and established ourselves upon a footing immeasurably 
superior to that of any antecedent period, with corresponding 
assurances of the beneficial influences derivable therefrom. 
In fact we seem, as it were, to have just emerged from a 
state of arrested development; and we may confidently look to 
this transition for new elements of vigour and vitality in the 
expansion of our scientific energies. 
You will have learned from the Report of the Council that the 
accounts of the past year show a satisfactory balance of receipts 
over expenditure; and that it is intended to afford further 
facilities of access to our Library by the appointment of a resident 
Librarian; Mr. Janson, who has occupied this post for so many 
years, and who has proved so efficient on all occasions, being 
unable to devote more of his time than hitherto to this important 
object; and, furthermore, that the Council have decided to reduce 
the price of our publications for all Metropolitan Members residing 
within a circuit of fifteen miles, to a fixed contribution, at their 
option, of half-a-guinea per annum, with free delivery at their 
respective residences. 
