clx 
CLOSING ADDRESS. 
The CHArrMAN then said: Following the course which I adopted at 
the close of the session for 1884, I propose to detain you for a few 
moments while I pass under review the proceedings of the session 
which will terminate this evening. In the first place it is satisfactory 
to know that the number of Fellows on the roll of the Royal Society 
keeps steadily increasing, there having been an addition this year of 
22 (of whom two, the Hon. W. Macleay, F.L.S., and EH. Pierson 
Ramsay, F.R.S., E., F.L.8., of Sydney, were elected hon. members), 
while only two members have withdrawn. It may be fairly anticipated 
that, at no distant day, every person of education and culture living 
within the range of the society will seek to be included in its list 
of Fellows. The attendance at the evening meetings has also largely 
increased, and a deeper interest has been manifested in the proceedings, 
more especially when, by the kindness of various members, the aid of 
the microscope has been so freely given in the illustration of papers. 
The presentations to the Museum have been numerous and valuable, 
comprising specimens in almost every department of Natural Science ; 
and there has also been, as usual, a large number of donations of a 
miscellaneous description. The contributions to the library have been 
many and valuable, in addition to the various sterling publications 
subscribed for by the Society ; and there has been lately received from 
London a case of rare and choice volumes of a strictly scientific character, 
chiefly relating to ichthyology, being the first instalment which has 
been purchased by means of the interest derived from the Morton-Allport 
Memorial Fund. These books have been placed on the table for in- 
spection. A catalogue of the extensive collection of books and pamphlets 
in the library has been prepared by the librarian to meet a long-felt 
necessity. Mr. Morton has deservedly received the acknowledgments 
of the Fellows for the admirable manner in which this work was per- 
formed. With regard to the papers read at the evening meetings, if 
may, I think, be affirmed that the work of this session will bear favour- 
able comparison with that of any which have preceded it, both in 
respect to the number and variety of the subjects brought forward, as 
well as to their scientific value and importance. I would instance the 
comprehensive sketch of the ‘‘ Zoology of Australia,” by that eminent 
naturalist, our recently elected honorary member, the Hon. William 
Macleay, F.L.S., of Sydney, written for publication in Germany, but 
which that gentleman consented, at the request of our illustrious friend, 
Baron Von Mueller, should first appear in its original English in our 
Transactions before its translation into a foreign language. The several 
contributions by Mr. R. M. Johnston, F.L.S.,—(1) On the Silurian 
fossils of the Gordon limestone ; (2) on new species of fossil leaves from 
the tertiary deposits of Mount Bischoff and elsewhere; and (3) on the 
classification of the upper paleozoic and mesozoie rocks of Tasmania, 
together with its coal plants, will be especially appreciated by geologists, 
both in the colonies and in Europe. A complete table of the strati- 
fied rocks of Tasmania, compared with the arrangement of similar 
rocks of other countries, imparts additional value to this paper. I 
should here mention that a geological sketch map of Tasmania, prepared 
by Mr. Sprent, Deputy Surveyor-General, in conjunction with Mr. R. 
M. Johnston, and lithographed at the Lands and Works Office by 
permission of the Hon. Nicholas J. Brown, has been presented to the 
Royal Society, and is likely to prove of considerable advantage, as a 
guide on the one hand and a beacon on the other, in the prosecution 
of mining and other enterprises. The able and exhaustive paper by 
Mr. W. F. Ward, A.R.S.M., Government Analyst, on the impurities 
of water in relation to typhoid fever, should comn:and, from its great 
