OPENING ADDRESS. 7 
and for one or two discussions upon points of biological 
interest, and by having our more technical papers explained 
briefly by the authors, in place of being read, we could, I 
think, without losing our scientific standing or in any way 
changing the character of our publications, make the 
meetings more attractive and instructive, and so I hope 
induce our members to attend in larger numbers and take 
a more lively interest in the proceedings. 
ORIGINAL WORK. 
To pass now to our third head, the work of our 
members, although we have ever since the formation of 
the Society justly prided ourselves upon its eminently 
practical nature, upon the large amount of original investi- 
gation which is brought before it by the members, yet 
we ought not to rest satisfied, for research is the life and 
soul of a society, and should be encouraged in every pos- 
sible way, and wide fields for work in many departments 
of biology still stretch around us. This is a matter in 
which perhaps some of us who have had more opportunity 
of studying biological methods may be able to help our 
fellow members by suggesting subjects for research and 
lines of investigation; and, as I pointed out in my 
presidential address of last year, by far the most important 
and interesting investigations requiring the attention of 
biologists at the present time are those which have a 
bearing upon the theory of evolution. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL SELECTION. 
Some of you will, doubtless, recollect that in that 
address, while discussing Dr. Romanes’ theory of physio- 
logical selection, I quoted Professor Fleeming Jenkin’s 
imaginary case of a white man wrecked upon an island 
