1910. | Anniversary Address by Sir A. Getkie. 265 
The second and younger group, by the institution of what is called the Fee- 
Reduction Fund, are relieved of the payment of an entrance fee and their 
annual contribution is reduced to £3, the remaining £1 being paid out of 
that Fund. When this arrangement was made it seems to have been 
calculated that the original capital sum of £10,111 5s. (which was raised by 
voluntary contributions), with the invested interest accruing from it, would 
yield an annual income of £600, which was estimated to be sufficient to 
meet the highest demand that was likely to be made on the Fund. But these 
calculations have proved erroneous, partly no doubt on account of the fall in 
the rate of interest and partly also because younger men have been elected 
into the Society than was formerly the case, so that the increase in the 
participators in the benefit of the Fund has not been balanced by deaths to 
the extent anticipated. 
Consequently now, thirty years after the foundation of the Fund, the 
income, instead of amounting to £600 per annum, has only reached £467 4s. 9d. 
while the payments this year should be £474, viz., £150 in respect of fifteen 
entrance fees-and £324 towards the annual contributions of 324 Fellows 
elected since 1878 and still living. There is, thus, this year, for the first 
time a deficit, which amounts to £6 15s. The excess of the sum which should 
be paid beyond the income of the Fund will increase annually, though at a 
diminishing rate, and will probably ultimately amount to about £50. It is 
obvious, therefore, that some new arrangement will require to be made. The 
Fellows elected since 1878 might be called upon to increase their annual 
subscriptions, but such a call would probably be felt to be both inconvenient 
and undesirable. An alternative would be to increase the capital of the Fund, 
and this would undoubtedly be the more acceptable solution of the difficulty. 
If the Treasurer could be put in possession of a sum of at least £1,000 he 
would be placed in a satisfactory position in regard to this portion of the 
Society’s finances. So long as the deficit remains small the excess of income 
could be devoted to the increase of the capital, and consequently the sooner 
the sum required is obtained the better. I commend this matter to the con- 
sideration of the Fellows; among whom there are doubtless many who will 
be as glad to contribute substantial sums as were the original founders 
of the Fund. 
MEDALLISTS, 1910. ‘ 
CopLEY MEDAL. 
The award of the Copley Medal has this year been made to one of our 
own countrymen, who has been more than fifty years a Fellow of the Royal 
