J?iiesidi:nt's addeess. 295 



forms to be met with in the group, and with its literature, he 

 has been enabled to treat in a full and able manner the subject 

 of the classification of these forms, and has thereby developed 

 this report into an elaborate monograph of recent Foraminifera. 



With reference to the subject of nomenclature, the following 

 are Mr. Brady's views, which seem founded on common sense. 

 It is surely not requisite, in a group like this, "that a uniform 

 standard of fixity of characters should be adopted, or that a set 

 of beings of low organisation and extreme variability should be 

 subjected to precisely the same treatment as the higher divisions 

 of the animal kingdom. The advantages of a binomial system 

 of nomenclature have not diminished since the days of Linnseus, 

 though the views of the naturalist as to what constitutes a 

 ' genus ' or a ' species ' have changed, and will probably continue 

 to change, but, be that as it may, the Linnsean method is too 

 simple and convenient to be abandoned without some better 

 reason than the different value of these terms as employed in 

 different zoological groups." " The practical point upon which 

 all are agreed is that it is impossible to deal satisfactorily with 

 the multiform varieties of Foraminifera, without a much freer 

 use of distinctive names than is needful, or indeed permissible, 

 amongst animals endowed with more stable characters." All 

 who have had any experience of the life-history of these Ehizo- 

 pods, who know their immense plasticness, and yet who remem- 

 ber their, within certain limits of deviation, fixedness of type, 

 will cordially agree with this. 



In bringing this valedictory address to a conclusion, it is very 

 pleasing to be able to congratulate the members upon the con- 

 tinued prosperity of our Club. The roll numbers over 550 

 members. The finances, also, owing to the care and vigilance 

 of our much valued Treasurer, are in a very satisfactory state. 

 That such may be long continued is our ardent desire. Most 

 sincerely do we wish our Club every success, in the future, in its 

 valuable and pleasurable labours. My grateful thanks are again 

 tendered to the members for the enviable position in which they 

 were pleased to place me, when they elected me for the second 

 time President of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. 



