13 



by a concert ably got up and conducted by Mr. W. Latter, 

 R.A.M., with whose musical excellence I am pleased to say 

 most of our members are well acquainted. 



Now, gentlemen, I can assure you that the members of our 

 Exhibition Committee worked hard, and I do think the 

 thanks of the Society generally so kindly vouchsafed to the 

 Committee were well earned. I recommend you on all 

 future occasions specially to see that you secure the services 

 of our worthy Treasurer, Mr. Adkin, on that committee ; his 

 energies were untiring, and no small amount of the success 

 of the Exhibition was due to the arduous labours bestowed 

 on the arrangements by himself and Mrs. Adkin. To them 

 and to our numerous friends who so kindly contributed to 

 the success of the entertainment by loans of exhibits, their 

 personal assistance, and in sundry other ways, our gratitude 

 is not only due, but freely given, and I think the manner in 

 which our junior members came forward and assisted us is 

 proof, if proof be required, of the good these exhibitions do, 

 and the thoroughness of our Society's work. Possibly some 

 of our members may ask, Was the exhibition a success finan- 

 cially? Well, that depends on so many things, but I think 

 I may say it was. We did not qtdte pay our way, it is true, 

 but our Exhibition was unique, not only as regards the 

 change in locality and its general excellence, but in that the 

 Society as a society was not called upon to pay one sixpence 

 towards the expenses. A few members formed a guarantee 

 fund, but even they were only called upon for quite a trifling 

 subscription. 



Certain members have been known to question the desira- 

 bility of these annual exhibitions being held. Personally, 

 I am convinced that they are a decided source of strength, 

 not only to the Society in particular but to natural history 

 in general. They do a great deal towards removing a very 

 loose but somewhat general impression that natural history 

 is only a pursuit for children, or cannot be made interesting 

 or useful to even the average adult. To our Society they 

 are useful by way of recruiting our ranks and introducing 

 fresh blood. Many of our members can be traced back 

 either directly or indirectly to the agency of our Exhibitions. 

 In addition to which one meets friends from the country 

 who are seen at no other time, and the same may be said 

 of the special rarities or gems from the collections of many 

 of our best naturalists, whose cabinets, either on account of 

 distance or from other causes, are not open to the inspection 

 of naturalists at large. I believe on this occasion, no doubt 



