1876.] 



President's Address, 



339 



G-ENTLEMEIT, 



The annals of the Eoyal Society show that the year ending with this 

 Anniversary presents no falling off in the yalne and interest of the com- 

 munications brought before our meetings, as compared with previous 

 years, and indeed surpasses them in number and extent of publications, 

 and in demands on the time of your Council. We have been called upon 

 more frequently than ever to aid in giving effect to those efforts for the 

 advancement of natural knowledge which, whether originating in private 

 enterprise or in the Councils of the State, have marked the year as a 

 memorable one in the history of science. 



Before, however, proceeding to the historical summary which this 

 statement involves, I have to discharge the always painful task of 

 recalling to memory the names of the most distinguished of our Fellows 

 who have died since the last Anniversary. In Science we have lost Mr. 

 Eennett, Mr. Campbell De Morgan, Dr. Parkes, Mr. Poulet Scrope, 

 Dr. Sibson, and Lieut.-Col. Strange ; in letters and public services, the 

 Eev. Dr. Bosworth, Lord Lyttelton, Earl Stanhope, and the Eev. Dr. 

 Wilson ; and the names of the botanist Brongniart and the veteran 

 microscopist Ehrenberg disappear from the list of Eoreign Members. 



As regards the part taken by your Council in the labours of the 

 year now expired, I feel it to be my duty, as it is, indeed, my pleasure, 

 to inform you, so far as the limits of an Anniversary Address will 

 admit, of the importance of those labours — and the more so, as without 

 this opportunity it would not be easy to make you acquainted in a way 

 commensurate with their value with the scientific services of your Council 

 as contradistinguished from their current duties. 



As anticipated in my 'Address of last year, application has been made 

 to the Treasury for a grant to cover the cost of printing the decade 

 1864-73 of our Catalogue of Scientific Papers, comprising now more than 

 100,000 titles ; and I am happy in having to announce that the applica- 

 tion was acceded to in the same handsome spirit as that in which the 

 Lords of the Treasury, during Mr. Grladstone's administration, placed a 

 sum upon the Parliamentary votes to defray the expense of printing the 

 first six volumes. The value of this work becomes more and more appre- 

 ciated with lapse of time ; and you will be glad to learn that the con- 

 tinuation of this Catalogue from year to year has been ordered by your 

 Council as a permanent part of the Society's official work. As you are 

 aware, the expenditure for this work appears regularly in our annual 

 balance-sheet. 



Acting under a recommendation by the Library Committee, your Council 

 offered the custody of our collection of Oriental MSS. to the India Office 

 under certain conditions, viz. that the manuscripts which require binding 

 should be bound, and a Catalogue made of the whole collection. The 

 Secretary of State for India in Council has accepted the offer with its 



