193 



Repo7't of the Council for 18QS. 



In accovdance with the Bye-Laws the Council presents to the Society the fol- 

 lowing Report : — • 



The most important event of the past year has been the disposal of the Collections 

 of British Insects. This step was not taken without much deliberation, and extra- 

 ordinary measures were adopted to ascertain the feeling of both Members and Sub- 

 scribers before the question was finally submitted to a Special Meeting. In pursuance 

 of the decision of tliat Meeting, the type-specimens have been transferred to the 

 British Museum ; the residue of the Collections and the Cabinets have been sold by 

 public auction. We feel assured that by ceasing to attempt that to which our present 

 resources are inadequate, and by restricting our expenditure to the extension of the 

 Library and the publication of valuable Entomological Memoirs, we are doing the best 

 that our financial position allows to promote the objects for which the Society is con- 

 stituted. 



Many precious works have been presented to the Library, and important additions 

 have also been made by purchase ; a considerable sura has been expended in binding 

 numerous volumes, and (what was much required) a handsome acquisition to the 

 Society^s Apartments has been made in the shape of a new mahogany book-case. 



During the past year we have done honour to ourselves by adding to our roll of 

 Honorary Members the names of Hagen, Lacordaire, and Leconte. But we regret to 

 announce a diminution in the number of our Ordinary Members and Subscribers. 

 We have lost four Members and five Subscribers — nine in all, of which three vacancies 

 have been caused by death, and six by resignation. On the other hand we have 

 elected five Members and one Subscriber : but this leaves a resultant loss to the 

 .Society of three Contributors. And here it may not be amiss to remind you of how 

 small a number our body is really composed : at the present moment the List contains 

 the names of 111 Members and 32 Annual Subscribers — 143 Contributors in all ; a 

 number which seems to show that the metropolitan Society is scarcely in the receipt 

 of that amount of support which it has a fair right to expect from the Entomologists 

 of the United Kingdom. Under such circumstances the secession even of three mem- 

 bers is to be deplored : but we would fain hope that by their ardour and enthusiasm 

 our recruits will more than supply the places of the deseners, and that, by the earnest 

 endeavours of those who have already joined our standard, many others may be 

 induced to enrol themselves in our ranks. 



We have published four Parts of 'Transactions,' comprising nineteen Papers, 

 illustrated with ten Plates. We have also completed a work which was begun in the 

 previous year, viz., the making up into volumes the entire stock of the Second Series 

 of the ' Transactions.' This proved to be a work entailing large expense and con- 

 siderable trouble ; some of the Plates had to be engraved afresh, and additional copies 

 of nearly all of them had to be printed. But the whole has happily been accom- 

 plished, and the Society has been enabled thereby to satisfy its obligation of supplying 

 the 'Transactions' to numerous Foreign Societies and Honorary Members whose 



