xin SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS 177 



members of the Society as had principally applied themselves 

 to science, at the meetings of which communications upon 

 zoological subjects might be received and discussed, and 

 occasional selections made for the purpose of publication. 



The first meeting of the Committee took place on the 

 evening of Tuesday, 9th November 1830, at the Society's 

 house in Brut on Street, when a communication was received 

 upon the anatomy of the uran-utan by a young and then 

 unknown naturalist, Eichard Owen by name. This was the 

 first of that long series of memoirs, extending over a period 

 of more than fifty years, the publication of which in our 

 Transactions has done so much to advance the knowledge of 

 comparative anatomy and to give an illustrious place to their 

 author in the annals of science. 



Among the names of others who are mentioned as having 

 taken part in the business of the Committee during the first 

 year of its existence, either by their actual presence or by 

 forwarding communications, are N. A. Vigors, W. Yarrell, J. 

 E. Gray, J. Gould, E. T. Bennett, Andrew Smith, Bryan H. 

 Hodgson, 1 T. Bell, W. Martin, Joshua Brookes, W. Kirby, W. 

 H. Sykes, Marshall Hall, W. Ogilby, and John Eichardson. 



The Committee continued in existence for two years, 

 having met for the last time on llth December 1832. The 

 success of its meetings was so great that it was thought 

 desirable to make an alteration in the by-laws, by which the 

 meetings of the Conimittee were replaced by the " General 

 Meetings of the Society for Scientific Business." The first 

 of these meetings took place on Tuesday, the 8th of January 

 1833, and they have continued to be held on two Tuesdays in 

 each month during the season to the present time. As long 

 as the Society retained its house in Bruton Street, the 

 meetings were held there. In 1843 the Society took another 

 house, which it occupied for forty-one years, No. 11 Hanover 

 Square ; but its needs having outgrown the accommodation 

 afforded there, it removed in 1884 to the far more spacious 

 and commodious premises in No. 3 of the same square, 

 which we at present occupy. These meetings of the Society, 

 which are open to all the Fellows and to friends introduced 



1 Who was present at the reading of this address. 



N 



