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ANNUAL MEETING, 



Januaiy 25, 1869. 

 Frederick Smith, Esq., Membes- of the Council, in the chain 



An Abstract of the Treasurer's Accounts for 1868 was read by Mr. S.J. Wilkinson, 

 one of the Auditors, and showed a balance in favour of the Society of £79 10s. Od. 

 The Secretary read the following: — 



Report of the Council for 1868. 



In accordance with the Bye-Laws, the Council begs to present the following 

 Report. 



The number of our Members has again suffered a slight decrease; the ten 

 elections during the year are scarcely sufficient to supply the places left vacant hy 

 those whose names, by death, resignation or default, have been removed from our 

 List. We have lost Boheman, the youngest of our Honorary Members; and by the 

 death of Desvignes the small remnant of our Original Members has been made still 

 smaller. 



The additions to the Library have been numerous; both by donation and by 

 purchase our shelves have received very valuable acquisitions. 



But, like its immediate predecessor, it is for the extent of the Society's publications 

 that the year 1868 is conspicuous. The production of upwards of 650 octavo pages 

 of letter-press, illustrated by twenty-four plates, of 'which nine are coloured, is 

 sufficient to prove alike the activity of our Members and the economical administra- 

 tion of our finances. Besides the ' Transactions for 1868,' the first of the new issue 

 announced in the last Report of the Council, and we trust the precursor of a long line 

 of annual volumes of not less extent and of equal scientific value, the Society has 

 published other papers which must be regarded as in the nature of a bonus. Of the 

 "Third Series" of the Transactions, volume 3 has been advanced a stage, volumes 

 4 and 5 have been completed and indexed. And the contents of these have been 

 attended with somewhat unusual expense ; witness the coloured plates of Malayan 

 Longicornia and Cetoniidae, and the printing of Mr. Jenner Fust's Tables of Distri- 

 bution of British Lepidoptera. The last work, indeed, would have been beyond the 

 means at the disposal of the (Council, had not the author himself come liberally to our. 

 aid, and had not his assistance been supplemented by a vote of the Government Grant 

 Committee of the Royal Society. A furlhei instalment of the ' Longicornia Malay- 

 ana' is on the table this evening, and it is hoped that the ensuing autumH will 

 witness the completion of Mr. Pascoe's Monograph, and with it the completion of the 

 " Third Series.'* 



Two pleasing civcumstances in connection with the Transactions deserve to be 

 mentioned here; first, the considerably increased sum derived from sales, as compared 

 with the preceding twelve months ; and secondly, the growing number of new con- 

 tributors whose maiden papers have during the last two or three years been printed 

 under the auspices of the Society. 



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