328 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



from him with feelings of great regret, and would long prcsorvo as a 

 pleasant memory to look hack upon the great enjoyment thoy had do- 

 rived from tho connection now about to bo sovcred. For his own part, 

 he could say that there was no tinio at which he had met him when he 

 did not like him better than before. Eesiding as ho did at all that 

 distance from London, and yet attending to tho duties of his offico in 

 the manner in which he had dono during tho whole of tho four years ho 

 had presided over them, he was sure that tho Fellows present would 

 accord that vote of thanks with three times three. (Applause.) After 

 that display of feeling, it was quite unnecessary to put the motion to the 

 meeting in a more formal manner, as the appoval of it, which had boon 

 thus expressed, evidently came from the hearts of all. Ho trusted tbat 

 the President would, on his part, be ablo to look back upon his period 

 of office with as much pleasure as those who had been associated with 

 him. 



Prof. Bell said that after tho way in which the Society had received 

 the proposal, it was hardly necessary for him to add to what Mr. 

 Glaisher had said. But after the very remarkable services rendered by 

 Dr. Dallinger it was only right that one of those to whom the Society 

 intrusted its business should express some sense of the thanks which 

 were due to him as their outgoing President. If any one examined the 

 conditions which appeared necessary to constitute a good President, they 

 would be found summed up in the requirements that he must know 

 everything of something and something of everything. In their own 

 case the something to be known was not only the wide range comprised 

 within the term " biological knowledge," but also what on the other side 

 of the table was spoken of usually as brass and glass. When they began 

 to look into the wide range of biological science they would find that it 

 contained a very large number of subjects which were extremely inter- 

 esting, yet if a person were to devote a lifetime to the study of the 

 Volvocinea3 or the Ostracoda, though he would undoubtedly be able to 

 derive pleasure from the pursuit, it was more than possible that he 

 would not be able to excite great interest in the subject amongst a large 

 audience. But the subject of which the President knew everything was 

 one which had been made interesting to all, and the questions which 

 arose in connection with the processes of decomposition of organic 

 matter were such as impressed them the most, and were the most widely 

 interesting to instructed minds. If they considered what subjects the 

 annual addresses of the President had brought before them, the import- 

 ance of their range and of their bearing would be seen at once. In one 

 of them he traced out the history of the formation of the cell-nucleus, 

 whilst in another he described the long-continued and patient observa- 

 tions he had made as to the effects of change of environment under 

 different degrees of temperature. These two subjects were treated by 

 the President in a way such as no one but a thoroughly skilled micro- 

 scopist would have been able to do. It might indeed be said that the 

 President had offered an example in respect of careful and long-con- 

 tinued research which would go down, along with the labours of Darwin, 

 as a striking example of what patience, perseverance, and love a true 

 student of nature could throw into his work. Reference had also been 

 made by Mr. Glaisher to the question of the President's attendance at 

 the meetings, and though this was one which had to some extent 

 naturally come under the notice of the Society, it was perhaps not so 



