PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 7 



largely because they can bring the ladies of their families ; some 

 of our members, as a matter of fact, only attend on such occasions ; 

 although such members do not all contribute directly to the 

 scientific work of the Society they contribute to its resources, and 

 they gain some knowledge of its work and objects ; further the 

 annual conversazione did much to interest visitors in the Society's 

 work, hence I think it is unfortunate that these gatherings have 

 had to be omitted so often of late years. Although rather a 

 strain upon our funds, I am sure that in the end the Society 

 greatly benefitted by the expenditure. 



I do not think that we need fear a lack of novelties, " necessity 

 is the mother of invention," and members will make efforts to 

 maintain the character of these gatherings and even start their 

 preparations many months in advance, if they know that there is 

 to be a conversazione on a given date ; the notice of a few weeks 

 that we usually give intending exhibitors is insufficient, and 

 many who are unable to prepare anything for exhibition at short 

 notice might be able to do so if they had a longer one. Neither 

 is it necessary to have a large number of exhibits, too many 

 shown at one time tend to interfere with the intentions of the 

 conversazione, as some objects of interest may be overlooked and 

 others may be only imperfectly examined and appreciated. 



I well remember that when the Society only met when papers 

 had been contributed or promised for reading, it was quite a 

 common thing for our monthly meetings to lapse for want of 

 papers, but ever since we agreed to meet on the regular day, now 

 some twenty-eight years ago, whether there were papers ready for 

 reading or not, we have never failed to have material for the 

 regular monthly meetings, hence I would strongly urge upon the 

 members to do all they can to maintain the annual conversazione 

 and an annual reception as well, in spite of ths difficulty of 

 obtaining scientific novelties and the expense. We have had only 

 two or three of the latter, but they have all been successful and 

 have done good in promoting friendship amongst the members 

 and a mutual knowledge of their scientific predilections and 



