180 Transactions of the Society. 



III. — The President's Address. By Lionel S. Beale, F.K.S. 



(^Annual Meeting, Qth February, 1881.) 



The year 1880 has been with us one of prosperity and progress. 

 Including Honorary Fellows and those elected Ex-officio Fellows, 

 we now number 610. During the past two years 105 new Fellows 

 have been elected. A glance through the numbers of our ' Journal ' 

 will convince any one of our increasing activity and advancing work. 

 Valuable as well as highly interesting original memoirs, numerous 

 new instruments, and multitudes of preparations shown at our 

 meetings afford unmistakable evidence of the activity and energy of 

 many of our Fellows ; while the increased numbers attending our 

 meetings during the past year attest the unflagging interest taken 

 by the Fellows in every branch of microscopical work which it is 

 the aim of our Society to encourage and promote. 



Since the last anniversary we have lost some of our members by 

 death. Among these we have to regret the loss of an original 

 Fellow and former President, Professor Thomas Bell, F.R.S., the 

 first Professor of Zoology in King's College, and the author of 

 well-known books, — 'British Quadrupeds,' and 'British Eeptiles,' 

 as well as other works. He will long be remembered as a distin- 

 guished naturalist and as the successor of the celebrated Gilbert 

 White of Selborne. 



Professor David Thomas Ansted, M.A., F.E.S., formerly Pro- 

 fessor of Geology in King's College, was an enthusiastic worker in 

 his department of science, and author of many treatises and valuable 

 memoirs on subjects connected with Geology and Physical Geo- 

 graphy. He became a Fellow of our Society as far back as 1845. 



Eobert Ceely, F.E.C.S., of Aylesbury, was elected a Fellow in 

 1852, and though I am not aware he wrote any papers on strictly 

 microscopical subjects, few were more zealous and active in the 

 study of minute changes going on in disease. During a long life 

 he devoted himself to investigations in connection with vaccination, 

 and wrote some most valuable memoirs full of the results of careful 

 investigation and original thought. I was fortunate in becoming 

 acquainted with Mr. Ceely early in my career, and have often been 

 astonished at the activity and freshness of his mind. He skilfully 

 performed delicate surgical operations when he had reached four- 

 score years. At the age of eighty-three he was still active and 

 enthusiastic, and up to his death at that advanced age was perform- 

 ing the duties of a country surgeon in large practice. He was 

 one of the most unselfish of men, and was greatly respected and 

 beloved by all who knew him. 



John Thomas Eedmayne, of Bolton, L.E.C.P. Edin., M.E.C.S., 

 died in October last at the age of thirty-three. One who was well 



