13 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, — The close of another year naturally suggests to those 

 interested in the welfare of our Society a brief review of the labours 

 in which we have been engaged during that time. The recurrence 

 of such Anniversaries affords also a fitting opportunity of resting for 

 a while from the constant strain of current work, and calmly recalling 

 the past, endeavouring to extract from such a retrospect a just 

 conception of what our progress, if any, has been ; what our failures, 

 and there are certain to have been s'ome, have resulted from ; what 

 our hopes of future success may be. We shall thus be the better 

 prepared to enter on the duties of the coming year ; and the better 

 able to face the difficulties we are sure to meet, if we know what is 

 their nature, and what their limits are. 



It had been my intention to have taken, on this occasion, a 

 general review of the progress of knowledge in those departments 

 of enquiry, to which the Society has more especially devoted itself 

 during the year now closed ; to have seen, how far this Society had 

 contributed to that progress, if at all ; how far we were lagging 

 behind in the onward race, and to have enquired also how far, and 

 in what way, it might be practicable to encourage the efforts of 

 our members, to evoke their more zealous exertions, and to facilitate 

 their success. But having held the chair of your Society for only a 

 part of the year, and seeing also that the several contributions to our 

 meetings must all be fresh in the memory of the Members, I think 

 it will be scarcely necessary or desirable to attempt a summary review 

 of the papers which have been read. These will be quite as well 

 known to those interested in such enquiries, as they are- to myself. And 

 they are perhaps too recent to admit of a just estimate being formed 

 of their true bearing on the general progress of knowledge. The 

 regular, and rapid issue of the Proceedings of the Society, in which 

 are full reports of the several meetings held during the year, absolves 

 your President largely from the duty incumbent on him of recalling your 

 labours. On the other hand, as now one of the older members of 

 this Society, and as one who from the first year of being in this country, 



