ABSTRACT OF INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



ON 



MOLLUSCA AND THEIR SHELLS. 



BY 



ALFRED LEICESTER, President. 



[Note. — The President gave as his opening address a general 

 survey of the subject, especially from the conchological point 

 of view, as he considered that would be more useful to 

 any young conchologists present than a detailed discussion of 

 minute points in structure. He therefore desires to print 

 only the following abstract of his address.] 



The President opened by thanking the Society for the 

 honour they had conferred upon him, and expressed his 

 desire to keep up the interest of the meetings and the high 

 reputation of the Society. He alluded to the loss that 

 the Society had recently sustained in the death of its first 

 President, Emeritus-Professor Sir William Mitchell 

 Banks, and recalled how Prof. Banks in his opening 

 address in 1886 gave reasons for the existence of the 

 Society, and said: — " In every great city there are num- 

 bers of men who for their own pleasure and recreation have 

 dug deeply into nooks and corners of the great mines of 

 Natural History and Botany, and who can bring to the 

 surface many a bit of rare and valuable ore." The 

 President then paid a tribute of respect and honour to Sir 

 Williain Banks, and expressed the sorrow of the Societv 

 and their sympathy with the family in the loss they had 

 sustained. 



He then pointed out the value of the study of 

 some branch of Natural History to men engaged in busy 



