xin ZOOLOGICAL LECTURES 179 



owing to the difficulties met with in obtaining sufficient 

 support, it was in danger of being abandoned, until the 

 Council, after the full consideration which the importance of 

 the subject deserved, resolved to take it in hand as part of the 

 operations of the Society. 



The Society has, however, not only been mindful of 

 advancing scientific knowledge it has also endeavoured to 

 spread some of this knowledge in a popular manner by means 

 of lectures. In former years these were only given in an 

 occasional manner ; but the liberal bequest of Mr. Alfred 

 Davis to the Society in 1870 has enabled the Council to 

 undertake a more regular and systematic method of in- 

 struction ; and the Fellows and others have had every summer 

 for several years past the opportunity of hearing many of our 

 most eminent naturalists and able expositors upon subjects 

 which they have made especially their own. I regret, however, 

 to add that the interest taken by the Society generally in 

 these lectures has not quite equalled the expectations that 

 were raised when the question of establishing them was first 

 brought before the notice of the Council. 



Although, as will be seen by a consideration of the various 

 subjects which I have already referred to, the Society has a 

 wide sphere of operation and many methods by which the 

 objects of its founders are carried out, it is undoubtedly the 

 maintenance of the menagerie of living animals in the Gardens 

 where we are now assembled by which it is best known both 

 to the public as well as to a large number of our Fellows. It 

 will be well, therefore, before concluding, to add a few words 

 upon some points of interest connected with the past history 

 and present condition of this branch of the Society's operations, 

 the one which is at the same time the largest source of its 

 revenue and cause of expenditure. 



The collection and exhibition of rare and little known 

 living animals has long been a subject of interest and instruc- 

 tion in civilised communities, and in many countries either 

 the State or the Sovereign has considered it as part of their 

 duty or privilege to maintain a more or less perfect establish- 

 ment of the kind. 



Before the Zoological Society was formed the " lions " at 



