( \cmeviy ) 
name a few: though doubtless there are others whom, but for 
lack of knowledge, I should be bound to mention. 
Oscar Scuuuz, the author of important papers on the sub- 
ject of Gynandromorphism among the Lepidoptera; Max 
WisxorTt, of Breslau, who bequeathed to the University 
Museum of that town a famous collection of varieties, gynan- 
dromorphic specimens, etc., among the Lepidoptera ; EpouaRD 
Prager (aet. 93!), of Neuchatel, author of a great work on 
Eetoparasites ; Fenix Piateau, widely known as a foremost 
authority on the eye-sight, flight, etc., of Insects ; Dr. Hone- 
son, of Redhill, described in the “ Entomologists’ Record ” 
last March, on the high authority of Dr. Chapman, as “ one 
of our more thoughtful entomologists”; and Mrs. EpiTx 
Wot.aston, who shared the travels and studies of her late 
husband, the famous Coleopterist, and contributed on her own 
account to the literature of the Lepidoptera. 
Nor can the list of our losses be meetly closed without 
allusion to two great men, whom in common with the whole 
scientific world we have had to mourn in the year just past. 
Neither, I believe, was professedly an Entomologist, nor 
directly connected with our Society (tales cum fuerint, utinam 
nostri fuissent /), but each was supremely eminent in his own 
department of Biology; and each was an illustrious veteran, 
who, like Homer’s Nestor, had achieved greatness in an age 
of heroes, and survived to be a leader among their children’s 
children—Sir JoserpH Datton Hooker, the prince of modern 
Botanists, and to some of us revered yet more, as the bosom- 
friend and confidant of Darwin; and Sir Francis GaA.ton, 
not a friend only but a relative of Darwin, a chief pioneer in 
the scientific study of Heredity (so supremely interesting at 
this time to every serious investigator of Nature), and the 
recognised founder of ‘‘ Kugenics.” 
I come now to the duty, imposed on me by long custom, 
but not (I believe) by any positive enactment, of announcing 
a “special subject”? and addressing you upon it. That duty 
has been described, from this chair, and on an occasion like 
the present, as a responsibility which many men might not 
unreasonably hesitate to accept, however highly they would 
