¢ Sik) 
THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
GENTLEMEN, 
The Report of the Council which you have just 
heard read gives, I am glad to say, a very encouraging review 
of the Society’s operations during 1897, and statement of 
its present position; so that we may look forward with con- 
fidence to progress generally during the new year on which 
we have entered. A very satisfactory feature of the Report 
is the number of new Fellows elected, which greatly exceeds 
that of the preceding year, and nearly touches the figure 
reached in 1894. 
The ‘“‘ Transactions ”’ are certainly of less bulk than usual, 
but, if the quantity is somewhat reduced, the quality of our 
publications has been fully maintained, and as a set-off the 
increased fulness and detail with which the most important 
of our discussions has been reported in our ‘‘ Proceedings ”’ 
is an improvement not to be overlooked. 
It will be remembered that in the Presidential Address 
of last year, my predecessor made special mention of 
the formation of a Committee of the Society to deal 
with the question of aiding in the protection from 
threatened extinction of rare and local British insects. 
The Committee has held several meetings, and has 
been in correspondence with various local Societies and 
with individual entomologists on the subject; and as 
regards the Lepidoptera—the only Order which would 
appear to be unduly persecuted by excessive collecting— 
a first or provisional list was drawn up of species held to 
