mens of the Bee and the rare Spider. A second field day was 

 arranged at Sandling Park in August, but only three or four names 

 were sent in, so that it was given up. It is somewhat dishearten- 

 ing to the efforts made by the committee, in answer to repeated 

 requests for field days, that such a slight response is made to the 

 invitations sent out. There is still considerable difficulty in 

 obtaining papers to read at the monthly meetings, and we should 

 be heartily glad of any offers that may be made to supply them 

 during the present year. As the chief object for which our Society 

 exists is to spread both the love and the knowledge of Natural 

 History, we do not ask for learned papers, or for origmal investiga- 

 tions (though such would be warmly welcomed), but rather for 

 accounts of one's own observations of animals and plants, or for 

 one's own thoughts in relation to the theories which are constantly 

 being put forward, and the discoveries which are being made. 

 Interesting discussions would necessarily take place, if we could by 

 any means persuade some members thus to initiate them." 



The President then read the following : 



ANNUAL ADDEESS. 



In reviewing the events of the last few years, two a.pparently 

 antagonistic facts present themselves to the mind. On the one 

 hand we are amazed at the ever increasing number of scientific 

 inventions and appliances ; on the other, we are forcibly reminded 

 of the necessarily slow progress made in endeavouring to fathom 

 the scientific laws themselves. I say necessarily slow, because 

 although the application of scientific principles is continually being 

 adapted to various novel and practical uses, yet research into the 

 theory and cause of any one scientific law often occupies the life- 

 time of oue, aye, even of two or more generations, before its true 

 nature can be grasped. 



Take for example, one of the most potent forces in nature, that 

 of electricity. If we ask what is electricity ? who can tell us ? 

 We know its effects, and to a certain extent we can control them, 

 although the fact of our very limited knowledge, even on this point, 

 has bepn only too painfully illustrated of late by the numerous 

 accidents which have occurred in America, from imperfect insula- 

 tion of the wires. Or again — what is the relation between electri- 

 city and magnetism ? Or what is the real nature of the force we 

 call magnetism ? We have most of us seen how simple a thing it 

 is to magnetise an iron bar, so that it has a north and a south 

 pole ; and we know that if we break that bar into splinters they 



