PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, 



On resigning the Presidency of this Society, it is necessary that 

 I should say a few words on its present state and its progress during my 

 term of office. It is customary also on this evening to call over our 

 muster-roll, so to speak, and to note the gaps which have been made by 

 death or by other causes. This is always a melancholy business, and 

 the more so if we should find that the enemy has made but little havoc 

 amongst us, and that our losses have been caused chiefly by desertion 

 from our ranks. Happily, the only member, so far as I am aware, who 

 has been taken from us by death, is Dr. Francis Owen, of Leatherhead. 

 Mr. Owen unfortunately lost his life by drowning on the night of the 

 21st October. Outside our own Society, the only name of note in the 

 obituary is that of the last of a family of Entomologists ; I allude to 

 Francis Oram Standish, who has passed away in the prime of life. On 

 the continent, many Entomologists, well known to fame, have died 

 during the year. Dr. Snellen Van Vollenhoven, the great Dutch Ento- 

 mologist, the author of many works on Hymenoptera, &c, including 

 the "Pinacographia," with the first parts of which we have lately enriched 

 our library (it is to be hoped that this splendid work will be completed); 

 the eminent and veteran Frenchman, Dr. Boisduval, who was known as 

 the author of many valuable works and memoirs ; Leopold Kirchner ; 

 Theodor Hartig ; and Van Kiesenwetter, all men of note in Germany, 

 and many others of lesser fame. Most of these died at a ripe age, and 

 their works remain to us. 



