6 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



referred to, the amount of literature in connection with the 

 Club is small. As was natural, the minute-books passed into 

 the keeping of the parent Society, and there is a very brief 

 abstract of them at the Zoological Society's offices. The 

 Introductory Address delivered at its foundation by the Rev. 

 William Kirby, the first Chairman, was published in the 

 Zoological Journal for April, 1825. Those delivered by Messrs. 

 J. E. Bicheno, J. E. Children, and Joshua Brookes, on their 

 retirement from the chair in 1826, 1827, and 1828 respectively, 

 and that of the Chairman, Mr. N. A. Vigors, on the dis- 

 solution of the Club, November 29, 1829, were published 

 separately at the request of the members, and copies of them 

 are in the library at No. 3, Hanover Square. Some extracts 

 will be of interest as showing the relations between the Club 

 and the Zoological Society; especially as these have been 

 somewhat overshadowed by the personality of Sir Stamford 

 Raffles, for whom the whole credit of the new foundation 

 has been claimed. 



The Rev. W. Kirby 's address dealt with " the principal 

 objects of our association, and the best methods of carrying 

 them into effect." These were (1) the compilation of a Fauna 

 of native animals, which should contain information from the 

 economic point of view ; (2) geographical distribution ; (3) 

 comparative anatomy; and (4) palaeontology. One expression 

 in this address is suggestive. In treating of the preparation 

 of the Fauna certain lines of investigation were said to be 

 "legitimate objects of a Zoological Society." It is not easy 

 to decide to what Society Mr. Kirby referred. Not to the 

 Linnean, one would think, for the Club had been founded to 

 give its members the opportunity for zoological work which 

 the parent Society did not afford ; nor to the Club, which 

 had a specific name — the Zoological Club of the Linnean 

 Society of London — and was no more entitled to be called a 

 Society than is the Linnean Club or the Zoological Club of 

 the present day. It seems, therefore, permissible to conclude 

 that the speaker was really referring to some Society the 

 establishment of which for dealing exclusively with zoological 

 matters was in contemplation. This might well be the case, 

 for Sir Stamford Raffles visited England in 1816, and under 



