117 



Report of the Council for 1863. 



In accordance with the Bye-Laws the Council hegs to present the following 

 Report. 



In the first place we congratulate the Society upon the good attendance of Members 

 and the interest attaching to the proceedings at our Monthly Meetings. Whether 

 viewed with reference to the number of visitors from all parts who have honoured us 

 with their presence, the objects exhibited, the papers read, the discussions thereupon, 

 or the amount of valuable information disseminated, we think that the year last past 

 will bear comparison with any of its predecessors. 



We rejoice to say that, notwithstanding many resignations which the Council can- 

 not but deplore, the number of those composing the Society has slightly increased since 

 the last Anniversary. We have lost by resignation five Members and seven Subscri- 

 bers; we have also lost one Member by death. On the other hand we have elected 

 ten new Members and four new Subscribers, thus making a total of fourteen added in 

 lieu of thirteen removed. 



And here, perhaps, it may not be out of place to allude to the loss which Entomo- 

 logy has sustained by the death of two gentlemen, each of whom had filled our Presi- 

 dential chair. On the first constitution of this Society the Rev. F. W. Hope was 

 appointed Treasurer and one of our Vice-Presidents. The latter office he filled for 

 many years, and for four years he was our President. It is not necessary to remind 

 you in detail of the services he rendered to Science, but we cannot refrain from a refer- 

 ence to that crowning act of his munificence which placed his entire collection at the 

 disposal of the University of Oxford, and instituted the Professors-hip of Zoology which 

 is so worthily filled, on its founder's nomination, by our colleague Professor Westwood. 

 As long as Oxford endures, so long will the name of Hope be inseparably connected 

 with the study of Natural History ; and we trust that a school of natural philosophers 

 will be nurtured in that ancient seat of learning, whose scientific achievements will 

 not only do honour to their founder's memory, but will also maintain, and, if possible, 

 elevate, the position of our countrymen among the naturalists of the world. 



The other loss to which we have referred is that of John Curtis, the author of the 

 * British Entomology,' the plates of which are universally acknowledged to have been 

 executed with such exceeding and life-like accuracy of detail as to have secured for 

 their author a permanent position in the ranks of scieiUific investigators. It is now 

 several years since Mr. Curtis's connexion with this Society ceased. His devotion to 

 Science cost him his eye-sight ; death has now closed his career of darkness, and opened 

 to him the gates of never ending light. 



The Council has received from the Library and Cabinet Committee its Annual 

 Report. The Library generally is in good condition, has received many additions, 

 chiefly as donations, and its advantages have during the past year been utilized by 

 Members to an extent hitherto unprecedented. 



No addition has been made to any of the Collections. But on the other hand some 

 progress has been made in the re-arrangement of tlie Coleoptera, and the Council is 

 now in a position to ask the assistance of Members in supplying the wants of the 

 Society's collection from the superabundance of their own. The Cabinet is now ready 

 for the reception of a complete collection of the British species of Coleoptera ; but in 



