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THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Fellows of the Royal Society of Tasmania, — Eollowiug 

 tlie precedent of tlie last two sessions, during which I have had 

 the honour of holding the office of your President, I now 

 proceed, on this our closing meeting for 1889, to sum up 

 briefly the results of the session. The number of our Fellows 

 has increased since last year, and the additions to our library 

 have been most satisfactory. The attendance at our meetings 

 has been much larger than in previous sessions, and owing 

 mainly to the general interest attaching to many of the 

 papers submitted, and, perhaps, to some extent, to a sug- 

 gestion I made at our opening meeting, more members have 

 taken part in the discussion of papers than has hitherto been 

 the case, and in this way our meetings have been made more 

 lively and interesting. And here I must say one word in 

 commendation of the full and accurate reports which the 

 Press have been good enough to give of our proceedings, and 

 I am happy to place on record the fact that I have found 

 persons in all parts of the island taking a deep interest 

 in what goes on at our meetings, of which they would have 

 known nothing except from the reports in the newspapers. 



The close association of our Society with the Museum, with 

 which we have many objects in common, justifies me in 

 referring to the very important addition made during the 

 session to the accommodation of the Museum by the opening 

 of a new wing. It will be in your recollection that it was at 

 a meeting held in this room on 22nd May last that I per- 

 formed the pleasing duty of declaring this new wing to be 

 open. On that occasion I referred to the excellence of the 

 description and classification adopted by our Curator, and 

 since that time Professor Flower, F,R,S., the President of 

 the last meeting of the British Association held at Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne on September 11, devoted a considerable portion of 

 his address to pointing out the extreme importance of the 

 classification and descriptions of specimens in Museums, He 

 goes so far as to say that a well-arranged Museum should be 

 " a collection of instructive labels illustrated by well-selected 

 sj)ecimens," The Curator, he says, " must carefully consider 

 the object of the Museum, the class and capacities of the 

 persons for whose instruction it is founded, and the sj)ace 

 available to carry out this object. He will then divide the 

 subject to be illustrated into groups, and consider their 



