2 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
cases I believe the members would be glad to let the President off J 
with a brief formal statement of the character indicated. I am a 
unwilling however to be the first to break in abruptly upon an ~ 
established custom, and in looking about for some appropriate 4 
subject on which to found an address, it has occurred to me that — 
now we have completed a quarter of a century of continuous and — 
active existence, a brief review of the work accomplished might — 
not be uninteresting—the more so as the Royal Society is 
occasionally twitted with indolence, and even the members them- — 
‘selves probably do not realise that on a fair view of the case, and — 
making due allowance for unfavourable circumstances, the Society q 
has been the means of giving publicity to a large amount of — 
intellectual effort, and of persevering and laborious scientific s 
research. 4 
REVIEW oF past History or THE SocreTy. 4 
- [have said that we have had a continuous active life of five- 
and-twenty years; that estimate includes of course the Philo- 
sophical Society that preceded us ; but as there was a mere change 
existence of sixty years, for undoubtedly the first beginning of 
‘this scientific organisation is to be traced back to 1821, when the 
Philosophical Society of Australasia was constituted, with ten 
‘members, under the presidency of Sir Thomas Brisbane. 
that original Society did not long survive. It is mentioned 
“among the Institutions of Sydney in the Australasian Almanac’ 
1825, and not afterwards. The only record known of papers 
before it is in the Geographical Memoirs of New South W: 
by Mr. Justice Field, published in 1825. In that volume fo 
‘papers are reprinted in full, the titles of which are given in 
Tnaugural Address of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, in 1867. Be 
the reading of papers, that Society engaged in another pub 
act which has better served to perpetuate its name. In 1 
1822, it caused a tablet to be affixed to the rocks on the 
