May 27, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



741 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



The sixty-ninth Anniversary Meeting of 

 ■this Society was held yesterday at their 

 ■offices 3 Hanover Square W. The chair 

 was taken at 4 p. m., by Sir William H. 

 Flower, K.C.B., F.E.S., President of the 

 Society. 



After the Auditors' report had been read, 

 a vote of thanks accorded to them, and other 

 preliminary business had been transacted, 

 the report of the Council on the proceedings 

 of the Society during the past j^ear was read 

 by Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.E.S., the Secretary. 

 It stated that the number of Fellows on the 

 31st of December, 1897, was 3,158 showing 

 an increase of 60 during the past year. The 

 number of Fellows' names upon the So- 

 ciety's books was at that date larger than 

 it had been at any period since the year 

 1885. 



The occurrence of the Queen's Diamond 

 Jubilee in 1897, together with the very 

 favorable weather experienced during the 

 BTimmer and autumn of that year, had 

 drawn a large number of visitors to the 

 Society's Gardens,' and the total income of 

 the Society had consequently reached the 

 large amount of £28,713, being £1,631 more 

 than in 1896, and greater than that of any 

 year since the year 1884. 



The ordinary expenditure of the Society 

 for 1897 had amounted to £25,329, which 

 ■was an increase of £1,541 over that of the 

 year 1896. Besides this a sum of £2,375 

 had been paid, and charged to extraordinary 

 expenditure, having been mainly devoted 

 to new works and new buildings. 



A further sum of £1,000 had been placed 

 to the Society's Deposit Account (which 

 now amounted to £3,000), and a balance of 

 £1,074 had been carried forward to the 

 benefit of the present year. 



The usual scientific meetings had been 

 held during the year 1897, and a large num- 

 h&r of valuable communications had been 

 received upon every branch of zoology. 



These had been published in the annual 

 volume of Proceedings, which contained 1,013 

 pages illustrated by 57 plates, Parts 3 and 4 

 of the 14th Volume of the Society's Quarto. 



Transactions had also been published in 

 1897. The 33d Volume of the Zoological 

 Record (containing a summary of the work 

 done by zoologists all over the world in 

 1S96), edited by David Sharp, F.R.S., had 

 been likewise published, and issued to the 

 subscribers in November last. 



The Library, containing upwards of 20,- 

 000 volumes, had been maintained in good 

 order throughout the year and had been 

 much resorted to by working naturalists. 

 A large number of accessions both by gift 

 and purchase had been incorporated into it. 



The principal new building opened in 

 the Society's Gardens in 1897 had been the 

 new ostrich and crane-house which had 

 been commenced in autumn of 1896. The 

 final balance due to the contractors for its 

 erection (£1,188) had been paid to them in 

 1897 and charged to extraordinary ex- 

 penditure. 



During the past summer also a new glass- 

 house for the reception of the Society's col- 

 lection of tortoises had been built, adjoining 

 the reptile house, at a total cost of £464, 

 and likewise charged to extraordinary ex- 

 penditure. This amount, however, had 

 been lessened by the sum of £150 which the 

 Hon. Walter Kothschild, F. Z. S., who is 

 especially interested in these animals, had 

 kindljr contributed towards it. A third 

 new building erected in the gardens during 

 the past year, and recently opened to the 

 public, was a new lavatory which had been 

 built near the refreshment rooms specially 

 for the accommodation of visitors resorting 

 to that department of the gardens. 



Since the last anniversary a serious loss 

 had been caused to the Society's staff by the 

 death, on the 7th of May last year, of Mr. 

 A. D. Bartlett, for 38 years Superintendent 

 of the Society's Gardens. In the report 



