178 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 

 Dr. H. Woodwakd, F.R.S. 



Delivered July IZth, 1894. 



TuE saying of Harvey, the eminent physician and the discoverer of 

 the circulation of the blood, " that every living thing is produced 

 from an egg" [omne vivum ex ovo), uttered nearly 250 years ago, 

 contains a great and fundamental truth, which is still valid, although 

 it may not be of such universal application throughout nature as 

 Harvey believed it to be. 



Certain it is, however, that on the 27th of February, 1 893, in an 

 upper chamber in Chancery Lane, there was hatched, ex ovo, under 

 the auspices of my friend Mr. Wilfrid H. Hudleston, F.R..S., assisted 

 by Mr. E. 11. Sykes, Mr. E. A. Smith, Mr. B. ]}. Woodward, Mr. G. 

 F. Harris, and several other naturalists, a promising infant, which 

 was at once chnstcned the " Malacological Society of London." 



The object for which our Society has been founded, namely, the 

 study of the Mollusca and Brachiopoda, is one with wliich the name 

 of my brother, the late Dr. S. V. Woodward, will always be associated ; 

 and I cannot but feel that in selecting me as your first President, I 

 am in a sense benefiting by relationship, and was not wholly chosen 

 from personal fitness for the position. In any case I should be guilty 

 of a breach of duty if I omitted to thank you on this occasion for 

 the great honour you have conferred upon nie. 



It is with no small degree of satisfaction that we, who were present 

 at the birth of our infant Society, have watched its growth from 

 month to month, during this early period of its existence, and have 

 seen the steady increase of its membei's up to the present time; and, 

 although only a year and five months have elapsed since its foundation, 

 we nuiy justly f(>el proud of the (piality and number of the papers 

 that have already been presented for reading and publication. 



Inaugurated on 27th February, 1893, with 70 original members, 

 our Society numbered in June, 1894, 153 Members. Of these, 102 

 are British, and 51 Corresponding Members, who reside abroad. To 

 these latter Europe contributes 1 7 members ; South Africa 5 ; 

 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand 1 9 ; North America and the 

 AVest Indies 7 ; China, the Phili])pines, and the Sandwich Islands 3. 

 Thus, whilst the Imperial Institute, with its largo resources, is still 

 only on the threshold of Imperial Federation, tlie ISfalacological 

 Society, with its extremely slender means, may be said to have solved 

 the far wider (juestion of tlie Federation of the whole World. 



Only three parts of the " Proceedings" have been issued, but we 

 may refer to these with satisfaction, as giving an earnest of good 

 things to come, both as regards anatomical papers and also those 

 devoted to descriptions of recent and fossil shells. 



