Anniversary Meeting of the Zoological Club. ^03 



such an impulse, a few years have achieved the work of 

 centuries. You, gentlemen, have witnessed and triumphed 

 in this result. You have seen zoology emerging from the 

 seclusion of the closet, where, like a thing of mystery, it lay 

 Jiid under the monopolising patronage of a few ; you have 

 seen it gradually passing into light, and winning its way by 

 its own native attractions ; until, attaining its legitimate station 

 in public estimation, it has become the popular and univer- 

 sally acknowledged favourite of the day. 



The great end of our institution being thus fully accom- 

 plished, it remains only for us to lay aside the instrument 

 which has produced this good, and for whose further agency 

 there appears no need. The present time has been considered 

 by the managers of your body as the most favourable for this 

 purpose. They have chosen the moment of triumph for the 

 moment of dissolution ; and have determined, in the mode 

 prescribed of old to the parent of the Olympic victors, to " die 

 this day." We can hope, in fact, to merit or attain no further 

 wreath by our own exertions. The activity of those members 

 who first promoted, and subsequently contributed to the sup- 

 port of, this club has been called into a wider and more useful 

 sphere : and to keep up the name and pretensions of a scien- 

 tific body, with diminished resources, — but, above all, to retain 

 the character of representing the zoology of this country, 

 where a more efficient and legitimate representative of the 

 science, springing from ourselves, has left us little claim to the 

 dignity, — would only serve to institute a striking contrast, of 

 benefit to neither party. We have, in fact, completed our 

 work, and it is time we should retire. The arch is rounded, 

 and the keystone fitted in, and it is expedient that the humble 

 scaffolding should be removed from all incongruous juxtapo- 

 sition with the noble edifice which it was mainly instrumental 

 in erecting. 



Of the general benefits conferred on zoology by this insti- 

 tution since it commenced its career, I shall have occasion to 

 speak before I sit down : but, following the example of my 

 esteemed predecessors in this chair, who have respectively 

 detailed to you the progress of the science during the succes- 

 sive years of their presidency, I shall previously enumerate 

 the various accessions to zoological information which have 

 occurred since the last anniversary. 



Much information has been acquired in the class of Mam- 

 malia during the past year. The addition of new species has 

 been considerable, and the elucidation of species already known 

 by name, but insufficiently described, has been of equal extent 

 and importance. Among the former are several contributions 



p 2 



