6 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
advantage be read in full to the meeting. As to the recep- 
tion with which a paper meets when read, I think there is 
often room for improvement. Although it is not advisable 
that the proceedings at all scientific meetings should be as 
lively as those of famous memory, which broke up the 
’ 
‘Society upon the Stanislaus,’ as immortalised by Bret 
Harte, still discussion—kept within proper bounds—is a 
very good thing ; and a condition of mind similar to that 
of Abner Dean of Angel’s, when— 
“The subsequent proceedings interested him no more,” 
is, at least in our old world civilization, not so frequently 
the result of a violent discussion, as of an entire absence of 
any intelligent difference of opinion and of any natural 
curiosity on the part of the audience. It is often most 
stimulating and useful to an author of a paper to have his 
results questioned and his methods criticised, and if a 
paper is so special that no one can criticise it except a 
specialist, well, at least we can all ask questions about 
those points we have not understood. And no one should 
ever be ashamed to ask questions at a scientific meeting. 
During last session I introduced the plan of inviting, as 
your President, two or three well-known biologists from 
other towns to address us, not necessarily with a view to 
publication, on the subjects upon which they happened 
to be working at the time. I think it to be a useful plan, 
and, with your permission, I shall repeat it during this 
session, by getting one or two outside biologists to come 
and tell us about their present work. It helps to keep us 
in touch with the world of investigators in London, 
Edinburgh and elsewhere, and may throw fresh light upon 
some of our own work and possibly prevent our getting 
fixed in some undesirable grooves. 
By arranging then for a couple of such addresses, 
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