4 G. H. KNIBBS. 



Financial Position. — The Hon. Treasurer's Financial Statement 

 shows that the sum of £200 has been repaid to the Clarke Memorial 

 Fund, and a balance of £35 8s. 4d. carried forward. 



Library. — The amount expended on the Library during the past 

 year was £98 10s. lid., viz. : £66 6s. 9d. for books and periodicals 

 and £32 4s. 2d. for binding. Amongst other works purchased 

 were Silliman's American Journal of Science, Yols. I. - x., to com- 

 plete the third series, and the Proceedings of the Royal Colonial 

 Institute, Vol. in., to complete the set. 



Exchanges. — Last year we exchanged our Journal with four 

 hundred and three kindred societies, receiving in return two 

 hundred and thirty-seven volumes, one thousand five hundred 

 and sixty-five parts, seventy -five reports, two hundred and four 

 pamphlets, and one portrait, a total of two thousand and eighty- 

 two publications. The following Institutions have been added to 

 the exchange list : — Royal Society of Sciences and Belles-Lettres, 

 Gothenburg; Editor of "Science Abstracts," London; Philadelphia 

 Commercial Museum, U.S.A. ; Societa Italiana di Fisica, Pisa ; 

 Illinois State Laboratory, U.S.A. 



Original Researches. — In response to the offer of the Society's 

 medal and grant of ten guineas for the best original paper on the 

 following subject : — 



Series XVIII. — To be sent in not later than 1st May, 1899. 

 No. 53 — "On the life history of the Australasian Teredo, and 

 of other species of Australasian wood-eating 

 Marine Invertebrata, and on the means of pro- 

 tecting timber from their attack." 



One paper has been received, but has not yet been adjudicated 

 upon. 



At this Annual Meeting of our Society, the last but one of a 

 century distinguished from all others by the intensity and univer- 

 sality of its scientific activity, it will not be inappropriate to 

 devote the hour at our disposal to some consideration of the 

 influence of systematised knowledge upon the progress of humanity 



