4 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
for every one, and apparently our present night and hour 
are those which suit the majority of the members of the 
Society. 
The further question then arises, Are our proceedings 
at the meetings as satisfactory and instructive as we can 
make them ?—and here I would like to speak perfectly 
frankly and without reserve, but I am expressing my 
individual opinion only, and my remarks must not be 
taken as implicating or binding the Council in any way. 
PROCEDURE AT MEETINGS. 
There are two chief classes of papers which are offered 
to societies such as ours. 
First, there are the more or less popular expositions of 
some subject already known to science. Such essays if 
well prepared are usually entertaining and sometimes 
instructive to listen to, but they are dangerous. They 
should—remember I am expressing my own opinion only— 
they should on no account be published in the volume of 
‘“‘Proceedings.”* They at once stamp the society which 
issues them as wanting in originality and in power of 
investigation or research. I would not however go so far 
as to prevent such papers, when dealing with sufficiently 
important subjects, from being read at the meetings; on 
the contrary I think they occasionally form a very good 
introduction to an interesting and instructive debate, but 
they must be used in moderation, not more than say two 
or three being allowed in a session, and they must be 
* T intend to propose at an early meeting of the Council that in future the 
Society should publish (1) ‘‘ Proceedings,” giving an abstract of all that occurs 
at the meetings, and also (2) ‘‘Transactions,”’ containing the original papers of 
importance printed in full. If this plan is adopted any popular addresses or 
expositions and discussions brought before the Society would be appropriately 
mentioned in the Proceedings although not printed in the Transactions. 
— ee ee 
ee ee oe 
tess 
