1885 Alteration of Rule as to Absentees 441 



by a large majority : " Any member who has not attended 

 the Club at least once in any year shall be reminded of the 

 circumstance, and if, in the course of the succeeding year, 

 he do not once attend, he shall no longer be considered an 

 ordinary member of the Club, but it shall still be open to 

 the Club to elect him a Supernumerary member, provided 

 that such Supernumerary member be not exempted from 

 the annual contribution." 



Rules III, IV, and V were modified in order to bring 

 them into harmony with Resolutions which had been 

 adopted in previous years. 



The abolition of Rule XV, which was also agreed to, 

 supplies an interesting commentary on the changed habits 

 of the members of the Club. The Rule ran thus : " It is 

 expected that those Members who may bring their servants 

 will order them to assist generally in waiting at table." 

 The writer of these pages can only remember one case of a 

 member who was attended by his own servant at dinner 

 and served by him with his own dry sherry. 



From the dinner-register it appears that Professor Tyndall 

 was in the chair at the first two dinners of the session, and 

 Admiral Richards, the Treasurer, has noted that on both 

 occasions the professor promoted the hilarity of the evening. 

 Of the first dinner the note is : " Agreeable dinner ; Tyn- 

 dall, rather brilliant, proposed the three toasts [The Queen, 

 Arts and Sciences, The Royal Society] in rapid succession, 

 at most three-quarters of a minute between first and last. 

 Douglas Gait on spoke of the desirability of reducing dinners 

 to eight. [There were fourteen dining that evening.] He 

 advocated a reprint of Smyth's " History of the Club." 

 Of the second dinner the Treasurer reports : " Scientific dis- 

 cussion on the age of Port-wine introduced by the Chairman, 

 with practical experiments by some of the members." But 

 the proceedings were not all fooling, for according to the 

 rules of the. Club a new President had to be elected. Pro- 

 fessor Huxley had resigned the Presidentship ten days 

 before, and in accordance with its regulations the Club had 

 to elect a successor. Professor George Gabriel Stokes had 



