45 



novelty, and consequently of interest, had been reached, and 

 they have since been held only at comparatively long 

 intervals. Whether they served the purpose for which they 

 were intended some of those now present will, I doubt not, 

 be best able to judge. 



The earliest publication of the Society was an " Annual 

 Report," consisting of the report of the Council, balance- 

 sheet, list of members, library catalogue, the rules, and the 

 president's address, the whole forming a pamphlet of some 

 twenty-four pages. This was continued until 1884, when it 

 was felt that such a publication was altogether insufficient 

 for recording the work that was being transacted by the 

 Society. It was just at this time that Mr. H. W. Barker 

 was appointed to the hon. secretaryship, and it was largely 

 at his suggestion that an "Abstract of Proceedings" was 

 substituted, and the Society's annual volume has since been 

 known by this name. It contains, as you all know, in addi- 

 tion to the items already mentioned, the papers read before 

 the Society during the year, and a detailed report of the 

 meetings, but of late it has been found that the library 

 catalogue has become so bulky that to print it annually was 

 an unnecessary expense, and the additions for the year only 

 are included in the Council's report ; the rules also are 

 omitted as, since their revision in 1891, they are obtainable 

 as a separate pamphlet. It often also contains plates illus- 

 trative of some of the papers printed, or of other matters 

 brought forward at the meetings, and they are, almost with- 

 out exception, reproductions of the actual work of the 

 members themselves. 



Neither time nor the space at my disposal will allow me 

 to refer in detail to the many interesting papers that have 

 from time to time been printed in these annual volumes, but 

 without in any way drawing invidious distinctions I may 

 mention some of them, if only as an indication of the work 

 that is continually being carried on by the members. Among 

 those that occur to me are Mr. J. W. Tutt's papers on " The 

 Zygsenids," " The Lasiocampids," and "The British Plume 

 Moths " ; Mr. F. Enock's " Life History of Cicindcla cam- 

 pestris (the common tiger beetle)," Mr. F. Noad Clark's 

 paper on " Argulus foliaceus (the fish louse)," Mr. F. G. 

 Fenn's paper on " The British Land and Fresh-water Shells 

 found within the South-eastern Counties," Mr. A. Sich's 

 " Notes on the Coleophorids," and Mr. H. J. Turner's " Life 

 Histories" of several species of that family; the Rev. F. H. 

 Wood's " Notes on Argyroneta aquatica and some other 



