Anniversary Meeting of the Roological Club. 203 
such an impulse, a few years have achieved the work of 
centuries. You, gentlemen, have witnessed and triumphed 
in this result. You have seen zoology emerging from the 
seclusion of the closet, where, like a thing of my stery, it lay 
hid under the monopolising patronage of a few; you have 
seen it gradually passing into light, and winning its way by 
its own native attractions ; until, attaining its legitimate station 
in public estimation, it has become the popular and univer- 
sally acknowledged favourite of the day. 
The great efi of our institution being thus fully accom- 
plished, it remains only for us to lay aside the instrument 
which has produced this good, and for whose further agency 
there appears no need. The present time has been considered 
by the managers of your body as the most favourable for this 
purpose. They have chosen the moment of triumph for the 
moment of dissolution; and have determined, in the mode 
prescribed of old to the parent of the Olympic victors, to ‘die 
this day.” We can hope, 1 in fact, to merit or attain no further 
wreath by our own exertions. The activity of those members 
who first promoted, and subsequently contributed to the sup- 
port of, this club has been called into a wider and more useful 
sphere: and to keep up the name and pretensions of a scien- 
tific body, with diminished resources, — but, above all, to retain 
the character of representing the zoology of this country, 
where a more efficient and legitimate representative of the 
science, springing from ourselves, has left us little claim to the 
dignity, — would only serve to institute a striking contrast, of 
benefit to neither party. We have, in fact, completed our 
work, and it is time we should retire. The arch is rounded, 
and the keystone fitted in, and it is expedient that the humble 
scaffolding should be removed from all incongruous juxtapo- 
sition with the noble edifice which it was mainly instrumental 
in erecting. 
Of the general benefits conferred on zoology by this insti- 
tution since it commenced its career, I shall have occasion to 
speak before I sit down: but, following the example of my 
esteemed predecessors in this chair, who have respectively 
detailed to you the progress of the science during the succes- 
sive years of their presidency, I shall prev iously enumerate 
the various accessions to zoological information which have 
occurred since the last anniversary. 
Much information has been acquired i in the class of Mam- 
malia during the past year. The addition of new species has 
been considerable, and the elucidation of species already known 
by name, but insufficiently described, has been of equal extent 
and importance. Among the former are several contributions 
PZ 
