for the year 1876. xiii 



found during my late holiday in Europe that Scientific 

 Societies there are subject to the same phenomenon as we, 

 unfortunately, sometimes witness — namely ^ paucity of attend- 

 ance at some of the ordinary meetings. There, as here, 

 unless the business of the meetings is unusually interesting 

 and sensational, a few only of the more earnest members 

 attend; and I have been present at several meetings of 

 some of the highest and oldest societies in London where the 

 attendance has been no better than it is in this hall. Small 

 attendances must not, however, be taken asany sign of the want 

 of vitality, for the real functions of this and similar societies 

 are but exhibited in the encouragement and inducement they 

 afford to investigation and experiment, and in the resulting 

 permanent knowledge embodied in their transactions. The 

 small attendance at some of our ordinary meetings, when 

 the business has been of less immediate interest, has induced 

 the Council to arrange that some of them should be of a less 

 formal and more of a conversational character, at which 

 exhibits of new apparatus, intelligence of scientific or other 

 progress, accounts of experiments or observations, not 

 necessarily original, had been received and discussed ; and 

 this plan, so far as has been tried, has been found satisfac- 

 tory. 



I believe the functions of this Society might possibly be 

 extended with advantage in the direction of brief special 

 lectures for the demonstration of new or interesting facts in 

 physical or other science. Such a course has already been 

 thought of, and I believe is well worthy of putting into 

 practice. 



The books in the library have now been thoroughly 

 arranged and classified, and the binding of the periodicals 

 has been commenced, and will be proceeded with from time 

 to time. As regards our publications, I may state that 

 Volume XII. has been published and issued, and that all 



