46 
Conclusion. 
Before concluding their Report the Council have to offer 
their best thanks to those Fellows of the Society who have 
so materially assisted them by serving on the Committees of 
Finance and Publication since the last Anniversary, and by 
auditing the Accounts for the past year. 
The Council believe they may fairly congratulate the 
Society upon its present condition, both in its popular and 
in its scientific aspect. 
As regards the former view, the fact of the Society’s Gar- 
dens having been the resort of nearly 600,000 visitors in the 
past year is sufficient proof that their unrivalled collection 
of living animals is fully appreciated as a source of instruc- 
tion and recreation, and that the arrangements under which 
it is opened to public inspection are such as to render it an 
agreeable resort. 
At the same time the Council believe that the more strictly 
scientific branches of the Society’s affairs have by no means 
suffered from this popularity, but have, in fact, gained much 
by the increase of income thus produced. The Society’s 
publications. are the medium whereby most of our leading 
naturalists seek to make the results of their labours known 
to science, and the Library has become the resort of many 
of the working zoologists of the metropolis. 
The acquisition of so many rare and singular animals as 
have been lately received not only serves to keep the public in- 
terest in the Society’s living collection alive, but is also highly 
beneficial to science, as ultimately furnishing specimens for 
the principal Museums of Zoology and Comparative Ana- 
tomy, and providing the materials from which many of the 
most valuable memoirs published in the Society’s ‘ Proceed- 
ings’ and ‘ Transactions’ are elaborated. 
Signed (for the Council), 
P. L. ScLaTEr, 
Secretary. 
11 Hanover Square, April 29th, 1872. 
