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original rules still govern us. In 1838 the class of Corresponding Members 

 was instituted ; in 1848 Annual Subscribers were allowed ; and in 1851 

 the grade of Associates was introduced. The last-mentioned class was 

 abolished in 1855; and you are to-night to be invited to consider the 

 propriety of reverting to the original constitution, by prohibiting the future 

 election of either Corresponding Members or Annual Subscribers, and 

 leaving those classes to gradual extinction, or, as it is hoped, to absorption 

 among the Ordinary Members. 



At the present moment we have 33 Subscribers and 205 Ordinary 

 Members, making a total of 238 contributing Members. Three years ago 

 I ventured to express from this chair a hope that we might be able to 

 publish a Jubilee List of not less than 300 Members. It is not yet too late. 

 And I appeal to each and all of you, Gentlemen, to be active in striving to 

 attain this object. 



" The Entomological Society of London is instituted for the improve- 

 ment and diffusion of Entomological Science." From first to last, this has 

 been our only object. To bring fellow- workers into friendly communication 

 and facilitate the interchange of ideas, to extract the hidden knowledge of 

 secluded students, to provide a Library for consultation, to encourage 

 observation and experiment, and to publish the results for the benefit of all 

 whom they may concern — such is our aim, the very reason of our being. 

 And I venture to assert that the Society has succeeded in its object. If any 

 be inclined to doubt, I refer him to the thirty volumes of our Transactions, 

 to the Record of Proceedings at our more than 600 meetings, as proof of 

 our activity and of the unfailing ardour with which the Society has now for 

 half a century devoted itself to the diffusion of entomological science. 



Let me recall the names of some who in their day were enrolled in 

 our ranks — such men, for instance, as Adams, Allis, Atkinson, Bainbridge, 

 Bakewell, Bedell, Bell, Bevan, Bladon, Bowerbank, Bree, Brown, Champion, 

 Children, Clark, Crotch, Curtis, Darwin, Dawson, Desvignes, the Double- 

 days, Evans, Gould, the Grays, Guyon, Haliday, Hewitson, Hope, Hors- 

 field, Howitt, Ingall, Ingpen, Jesse, Kirby, Lee, Macleay, Melly, Murray, 

 Newman, Newport, Pickering, Raddon, Roget, Saunders, Shuckard, Smith, 

 Solly, Spence, Spry, Stephens, Swanzy, Swaiuson, Sykes, Thwaites, Turner, 

 Vigors, Wailes, Walker, Walton, White, Wollaston, and Yarrell. 



I might have added others to this list of departed worthies, and I am 

 prohibited, by the fact that they are still amongst us, from mentioning 

 many distinguished men ; but the names I have recited, including students 

 and workers in Entomology who have left their mark behind them, and 

 others who happily were not limited to our own or even to kindred branches 

 of Science, are sufficient to cast no light burden upon us aud our successors 

 to maintain the traditions of this Society. Is it nothing that we should 

 stand in the place of such predecessors? Is it nothing that this Society 



