302 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



During- the past year, in the mathematical and physical section of 

 the 'Philosophical Transactions,' eighteen papers have been published, 

 and in the biological section, eleven ; the two sections together con- 

 taining a total of 1235 pages of letterpress, and 50 plates. Of the 

 1 Proceedings,' fourteen numbers have been issued, containing 1223 

 pages, and 20 plates. This unusually large bulk is partly accounted 

 for by the publication in the ' Proceedings ' of certain extra matters 

 which the Council deemed likely to interest the Fellows. One part 

 (No. 307), which forms an Appendix to Volume L, contains results of 

 the Revision of the Statutes, to which I alluded in my Anniversary 

 Address last year. It consists of a summary of the Second and Third 

 Charters, and a copy of the Statutes as now revised, followed by an 

 interesting note on the History of the Statutes, which has been 

 drawn up by our Senior Secretary, Professor Michael Foster. In addi- 

 tion to these matters, the same number contains a complete List of the 

 Portraits and Busts at present in the apartments of the Society, com- 

 piled by order of the Library Committee, a work which was much 

 needed, as no such list had been made since Weld's Catalogue, printed 

 thirty-two years ago. The new " list " is not a descriptive catalogue, 

 but the names of the painters and donors, and the dates of the gifts, 

 so far as a thorough and somewhat laborious examination of the 

 Council minutes and Journal books has revealed them, are furnished. 

 The List of Portraits is followed by a full descriptive Catalogue of 

 the Medals at present in the possession of the Society, which has been 

 carefully made by our clerk, Mr. James, under the supervision of the 

 Treasurer. 



Another extra number of the ' Proceedings ' (No. 310) is devoted 

 to a First Report of the Water Research Committee on the Present 

 State of our Knowledge concerning the Bacteriology of Water, by 

 Professors Percy Frankland and Marshall Ward. It contains 96 pages, 

 full of most valuable information regarding the vitality of micro- 

 organisms in drinking water, to which in a large measure the spread 

 of Asiatic cholera, typhoid fever, and other zymotic diseases is now 

 known to be due. 



In my Presidential Address of last year, I referred to this Water 

 Committee as having been appointed by the Royal Society, in alliance 

 with the London County Council ; and this first instalment of its 

 work seems amply to justify its originators in their expectations of 

 results, most valuable for the public health, from the investigation 

 which has been commenced. 



A third extra number (No. 311) contains the Report of the Com- 

 mittee on Colour Vision. This Committee, from the time of ifcs 

 appointment in March, 18 ^0, held over thirty meetings, in course of 

 which it examined more than 500 persons as to their colour vision, 

 and tried various methods and many kinds of apparatus for colour 



