2 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



who only became a member last year, but has been since 

 his election often with us, and seemed inclined to throw 

 into his connection with the club that energy and 

 interest which characterised him in so many other matters 

 in which he took part. I should like also to express my 

 regret at the loss of a former member and friend who 

 resigned some years ago, on going to live in Devonshire, 

 General Charles S. Sturt. He was much interested both in 

 natural history and antiquities, and had made considerable 

 collections. Also at the recent loss of another friend, Mrs. 

 Vaughan Cornish, the gifted wife of our former Vice- 

 President, who helped him so much in his valuable 

 researches. 



ZOOLOGY. 



In this branch I generally begin with the smallest and 

 apparently most insignificant creatures, which have, how- 

 ever, been shewn in late years to be of the greatest importance 

 to man in their connection with many of the diseases to which 

 he is subject. The latest scare has been the announcement 

 that rats containing plague bacilli have been found on our 

 shores, but though it appears to be a well-established fact 

 that this disease is communicable from such rats to human 

 beings, it is on the other hand a still better established fact 

 that no case of plague has occurred in this country (with the 

 exception of a few imported cases) for many years, and it 

 would seem likely that plague-rats would have been often 

 imported before the very recent discovery of their qualities, 

 so that I think we need not fear any serious outbreak. As 

 to destroying the rats, Japan has done its best, but after a 

 slaughter of 4,800,000 rats in five years, in Tokio alone, it was 

 found that there was no perceptible diminution, which 

 suggests the hopelessness of such a task. At the same time 

 something may be done, as I have managed for years to keep 

 the farm and outbuildings, &c., attached to my house practi- 

 cally quite clear of rats, though we keep a number of fowls 



