Nov. 13, 1873] 



NATURE 



31 



portant branches of general science, specially important 

 in its relation to our material prosperity. Our food and 

 raiment, the essentials of life, are derived exclusively from 

 the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and biological pro- 

 ducts contribute largely to many of our luxuries, whilst 

 on the other hand some of the greatest calamities with 

 which we are afflicted are due to the rapid development 

 of animal or vegetable life. Many are the associations, 

 under Government as well as individual patronage, de- 

 voted to the improvement and increase of useful animals 

 and plants ; and of late attention has been also devoted to 

 the arrest of the ravages of the noxious ones, the balance 

 of natural selection being disturbed by the interference 

 of agriculture and animal education. The due study of 

 the means of restoring tliis balance, of turning it more 

 and more in our favour, of calling in to our aid more and 

 more of the hitherto neglected available species, or of the 

 hitherto latent properties of those already in use, of 

 checking the progress of blights and murrains, requires 

 a thorough knowledge of the animals and plants them- 

 selves, and that thorough knowledge can only be obtained 

 by that scientific study not only of particular animals and 

 plants supposed rt/z'/f/-/ to be useful or noxious, but of 

 all animals and plants, which it is the special province of 

 our Society to promote. And in this respect I think it 

 will be generally admitted that we have not been neglect- 

 ful of our duty, and that we have done our part in render- 

 ing effective the support we have of late years received 

 from Government as well as from individuals, and in 

 establishing a sound claim for its increased continuance. 

 Besides the aid afforded to scientific researches by our 

 largely augmented library, the great value of the papers 

 published in the recent volumes of our Transactions and 

 Journal has been acknowledged abroad as well as at 

 home. It is in our Society, for instance, that the great 

 Darwinian theories were first promulgated ; and it must 

 be recollected that the five or six hundred copies of our 

 publications regularly sent out, place the researches they 

 exhibit at once at the disposal of the leading followers of 

 the science in all parts of the world. It is true that these 

 great additions to our efficiency are not entirely due to 

 Government patronage, but are the direct results of the 

 reforms introduced by Dr. Hooker in 1855. Those re- 

 forms, however, would have lost much of their effect had 

 we remained confined to our old quarters in Soho Square. 

 Cramped for space in those obscure and dingy rooms, it 

 required a strong devotion to science to induce an ade- 

 quate attendance at our meetings ; and saddled with a 

 heavy rent, we could neither purchase books for our 

 library nor find room on our shelves for those presented 

 to us. 



In the spring of 1856, however, an opening was made 

 for our obtaining rooms in Burlington House. I was then 

 on the Council, and joined heartily in the conviction of 

 the importance of availing ourselves of the opportunity, 

 notwithstanding the heavy expense it might entail, which 

 1 felt confident we could cover by a subscription amongst 

 our fellows. Our President undertook the preliminary 

 negotiations, and at the meeting of our Council on 

 June 1 1 a letter was officially communicated to us ad- 

 dressed by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Presi- 

 dent of the Roy.al Society, allowing the temporary loca- 

 tion in Burlington House of the Linnean and Chemical 

 Societies with the Royal Society, upon certain conditions ; 

 those which affected us being, that the Royal Society 

 should be put in possession of the main building of Bur- 

 lington House on the understanding that they would, in 

 communication with the Linnean and Chemical Societies, 

 assign suitable accommodation therein for those bodies, and 

 that the Fellows of the three societies should have mutual 

 access to their three libraries for purposes of reference. 

 Our Society,lat a special general meeting held on the 17th 

 of the same month, authorised the Council to take the 

 ne:essary steps for carrying out the proposal of the 



Government, and in the following February 1857 the 

 Royal Society assigned to us the rooms which we have 

 since occupied under the above conditions. A subscrip- 

 tion was organised which ultimately amounted to nearly 

 1,100/., sufficient to defray all expenses of parting with 

 our old rooms and fitting up the new ones, with a very 

 small surplus, which was carried to the general account. 

 In the same month of February I was associated with 

 our then active and zealous President and Secretary, and 

 with Mr. Wilson Saunders as a Removal Committee, and 

 on Tuesday June 2 the Society was enabled for the first 

 time to meet in their new rooms. 



Our position, however, although so great an improve- 

 ment upon Soho Square, was not yet quite satisfactory. 

 It was provisional only, and under the wing, as it were, of 

 the Royal Society, and liable at any time to be exchanged 

 for a worse or a better one as the case might turn out. 

 This uncertainty is now removed. The Government, 

 rightly understanding the relations which ought to prevail 

 with the scientific societies judged to be deserving of their 

 support, obtained from Parliament adequate means for 

 providing ample accommodation to the six societies here 

 located, without reserving any right of interference with 

 or control over their scientific operations. Thus our new 

 quarters have assumed a permanent and independent 

 character, the rooms have been built and fitted up ex- 

 pressly for [our Society, and, having followed out all the 

 arrangements, I feel bound to acknowledge the effective 

 manner in which the liberal intentions of Government 

 have been promoted and carried out in detad by the 

 architects, Mr. Barry and the late Mr. Bankes. When 

 the plans for the ne«r building were first being prepared, 

 some six or seven years since, we were applied to for par- 

 ticulars of the accommodation we should require for our 

 library and meetings, for the transaction of the business 

 of the Society and for the residence of our librarian and 

 porter. We were not consulted, it is true, about the 

 general arrangements in relation to the other societies, 

 and we have to regret the cessation of that close juxta- 

 position and intimate intercourse with the Royal Society 

 which was so agreeable to us, but in all other respects our 

 requisitions were fully complied with in the plans prepared 

 and sent to us for approval, and the only alteration since 

 made has been the curtailment of a portion of the base- 

 ment premises in favour of the post-office, which rather 

 inconveniently limits the stowage room for our stock of 

 Transactions. With this sole exception we have the space 

 we asked for, and the bookshelves and such other fittings 

 as have been provided by Government have been workefl 

 out in the most satisfactory manner. 



Our removal here has necessarily been attended with 

 considerable expense, the precise amount of which can- 

 not yet be calculated, but it will probibly exceed 60 j/. 

 The Council have, however, not thought it necessary to 

 call for any special subscription. The iuvestments made 

 during the past year have been partially with a vievv to 

 the present occasion, and the gradually increasing sale of 

 our publications and general appreciation of the value of 

 our labours has been so far adding to our receipts that we 

 closed last session with a much larger balance in hand 

 than usual, and we hope to clear ourselves of the liabilities 

 we are incurring, without reducing our invested funds 

 much below 2000/. At the same time, we must not con- 

 ceal from ourselves that we shall be called upon for a 

 considerable increase in our expenditure. Our enlarged 

 accommodation, combined with high prices, will add 

 much to our household expenses. We are threatened 

 with a repeal of the Act which exempts us from parochial 

 rates. Nearly the whole of our library having vvitliin the 

 last three weeks passed through my hands, 1 have become 

 convinced that it will require a large outlay in binding, 

 as well as in filling up gaps to render it really etlicient. 

 And, above all, we must bear in mind that the chief 

 means we have of promoting the scientific objects fcr 



