THE ENTOMOLOGY AND USES OF SILK, 



THOMAS WARDLE, F.C.S., F.G.S. 



I feel that a great compliment has been paid to me to-night in 

 having been unanimously asked to occupy the Presidential Chair 

 for another year. 



I have accepted this honour with some reluctance, because it is 

 possible for one man to be in the same office too long, and that more 

 useful members are thereby prevented having the opportunity of 

 giving valuable services to this Association, and through it, to 

 Science. 



I beg, however, to thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for your 

 confidence in me, which is, at the same time an endorsement of 

 your satisfaction for the past year, and your trust in me that I 

 shall do my best during the present year. 



My affections are very much bound up in this North Stafford- 

 shire Field Club and Archaeological Association, for several 

 important reasons. 



First, that we are all lovers of Natural History, and admirers of 

 the glorious world of nature ; collaborateurs of those in the past 

 who have tried to discover some of her mysterious laws, and those 

 of the present and future, who are, and who ever will l3e, finding 

 for themselves untold pleasure in the investigation of those forces 

 which have such manifold play, and with such varying and 

 wonderful results as can only be completely known to the Great 

 Architect of a Universe who made " all things visible and invisible ;" 



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