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June 6, 1883. 



J. W. Dunning, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., &c, President, in the chair. 



Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the 

 respective donors. 



Election of a Member. 

 George Coverdale, Esq. (24, Fleming Road, Lorrimore Square, S.E.), 

 was balloted for and elected a Member of the Society. 



The President invited Prof. Westwood, Honorary Life-President, to take 

 the chair, which he accordingly did, and read the following address : — 



Gentlemen, 



I hardly know how sufficiently to express to you my thanks for the 

 great honour you have conferred on me in unanimously electing me as the 

 Honorary Life-President of the Entomological Society of London, an office 

 hitherto in England held only by the venerable William Kirby ; whilst in 

 France Latreille was the only entomologist on whom the Honorary Presi- 

 dentship of the " Societe Entomologique de France" was conferred. Before 

 the names of these "heroes scientise" I must hide my diminished head, 

 as nothing which I have ever written can be put in competition with the 

 ' Monographia Apum Anglise ' of Kirby, or the ' Genera Crustaceorum et 

 insectorum ' of Latreille. I, however, may without egotism lay claim to 

 two characteristics which have governed me through my long entomological 

 career, namely (1st) an earnest zeal to further the science of Entomology 

 amongst both naturalists and the public by the investigation of difficult 

 materials, and the diffusion of sound knowledge in a more or less popular 

 manner; and (2nd) a thorough perception of the truth of the adage, " ars 

 longa, vita brevis," and a determination to adopt the equally useful adage, 

 "nulla dies sine linea," by constantly employing myself, either in accumu- 

 lating knowledge of what was being done by my fellow-workers in the 

 Science (to whom 1 trust I have always done ample justice), or in adding, 

 either by my pen or pencil, original materials to the fast-growing stores of 

 knowledge with which from day today we have for the last half-century been 

 inundated, and which require, for utilisation, a constant system of assimi- 

 lation. As a specimen of what may be done in the way of daily registration 

 of observations, I beg leave to exhibit to you the diary of the late John 

 Curtis, which (together with all his unpublished manuscript notes and 

 drawings) has come into my possession from his widow ; and, as I consider 

 this to be the best system of daily record of observations with which I have 

 ever been acquainted, I think it quite worthy of the attention of the younger 



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