Anniversary Address. 21 



of a committee formed in Newcastle, memorialized the British 

 Association for the advancement of Science to hold their 

 meeting this year in Newcastle, they considered it courteous 

 to assist in undertaking any excursion within their limits. 

 The geological section along the Howick coast being one of 

 the most instructive in the north of England, it was thought 

 that an excursion to that place would be of the highest in- 

 terest to the members of the Association. The Newcastle 

 local committee had authorised one of the secretaries to 

 organize such an excursion, and the meeting at Longhoughton 

 was deferred in the expectation, that the Association would 

 unite with the club in visiting the Howick coast. The plan 

 however was eventually withdrawn by the Newcastle local 

 committee, and therefore the club had not an opportunity of 

 cooperating with the Association at the recent meeting of 

 that body at Newcastle. 



These minutes suggest a remark, which indeed must occur 

 to any one who has been in the habit of attending our meet- 

 ings, viz., that a considerable change is taking place in the 

 subjects to which our attention is directed. Archaeology is 

 gaining ground among us and is forming a much more im- 

 portant part of our proceedings than it used to do. For ex- 

 ample, I find that during the first ten years of the existence 

 of the club, out of 74 papers and notices printed in our trans- 

 actions, 67 were on various subjects connected with natural 

 history and only 7 on archaeological subjects i while during 

 the last ten years, out of 73 papers and notices, 44 are on 

 natural history and 29 on archaeology. If this antiquarian 

 spirit had arisen fifty years ago, how many curious monuments 

 and interesting remains would have been preserved to us of 

 which now Ave have little but the empty name. Entomology 

 too is a subject which has taken a start since our club was 

 instituted. Out of 31 papers and notices which have ap- 

 peared altogether in our transactions, only 3 are in the first 

 ten years, 7 are in the last ten, and the remaining 21 in the 

 intermediate eleven years. On this branch are some most 

 laborious and exhaustive papers. In zoology also the last 



