97 



medical advice two years ago, and was on several occasions present 

 at our Meetings. 



Having now brought to a close the most solemn pai't of ray 

 address, let us turn our attention for a few moments to the losses 

 we have sustained by the withdrawal of Members, and to our conse- 

 quently relative position compared with this time last year. 



1 have already mentioned that we have now two Members more 

 and one Subscriber less than at our last Anniversary ; but our 

 excellent Secretary, Mr. Shepherd, who has so kindly supplied me 

 with the materials wherewitli to construct a report of our state of 

 being, has called my attention to the fact, that our list of losses has 

 been swollen by two or three old defaulters and absentees, whose 

 names have now been erased from our lists, and one gentleman, in 

 reply to a recent reminder of his arrears, politely informed us that he 

 ceased to belong to the Society when we resolved to part with the 

 Exotic Collections, but as he had not then the courtesy to infonii us 

 of this fact we have only expunged his name daring the past year. 

 Looking at our gains and losses in a commercial point of view, we 

 may say that we have exchanged thirteen guineas of bad and 

 douhiful subscription for fifteen guineas which are thoroughly good, 

 and I am thankful to say that I can congratulate the Society on the 

 list of good men and true who have joined our ranks during the past 

 year. It is also interesting to bear in mind the large proportion of 

 new Members that we have elected ; it has frequently happened that 

 we have elected two Subscribers for one Member in former years, 

 but now this state of things has been reversed, and we have elected 

 during 1859 two Members for each Subscriber. Members we find, 

 in point of fact, to be more permanent than Subscribers; a Member 

 will generally have deterniined to be an entomologist; a Subscriber 

 will frequently be doubtful in his own mind whether he shall devote 

 himself to the pursuit of our Science or not. It may be that we thus 

 obtain as Subscribers some who would never have become Members; 

 but, on the other hand, many who are now Subscribers would cer- 

 tainly have joined us as Members had the inferior class not 

 been open to them. I trust our Subscribers will bear in mind that 

 they can at once be proposed as Members, if they wish it, and 

 thereby become eligible to the offices of the Society, and the only 

 extra drain upon their purses will be the admission-fee of two 

 guineas. 



This leads me to the consideration of our financial state. You 



