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Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



Darwin Memorial. I am nappy to say that Mr. Boehm's admirable 

 statue was formally and publicly accepted by H.R.H. the Prince of 

 Wales, on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, last 

 summer, and now adorns the entrance ball of the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington. The balance of the sum raised, 

 amounting to £2,000, has been handed over to the Royal Society, and 

 the interest thereof will be employed under the name of the " Darwin 

 Fund for the Promotion of Biological Research " in any way the 

 President and Council may think fit. L sincerely trust that this fund 

 may be increased from time to time, as the Donation Fund, founded 

 by Dr. Wollaston, has been ; and that its beneficent influence on the 

 progress of biological science may thus keep green the memory of the 

 great man whose name it bears, in the way which, assuredly, would 

 have been most agreeable to himself. 



I am sure that I may express your acknowledgments to Mr. James 

 Budgett for the repetition of his liberal donation of £100 in aid of the 

 cost of publication of Professor Parker's important and elaborate 

 monographs on the vertebrate skull, one of which occupies a whole 

 part of the Transactions, and is illustrated by 39 quarto plates. 



We are indebted to the subscribers to the Henry Smith Memorial 

 for the marble replica of the bust by Mr. Boehm of that eminent 

 mathematician and most accomplished scholar, which now ornaments 

 our library. The Fine Art Society has presented Mr. Flameng's etching 

 of the portrait of your President, painted by the Hon. John Collier. 



Among the presents to the Library, I may particularly mention the 

 second volume of Professor G. Retzius' valuable and splendidly 

 illustrated work "Das Gehor-organ der Wirbelthiere " ; and " Les 

 Habitants de Surinam," by the Prince Roland Bonaparte, by their 

 respective authors; and four volumes of the "Challenger" Report, 

 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 



Five numbers of the " Proceedings " (about 880 pages) have 

 appeared since the last Anniversary. Only one part of the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions has been as yet published ; but two other parts 

 (Parts I and II for 1885) are passing simultaneously through the press. 



The possibility of devising means by which papers read before us 

 may be published more rapidly, has seriously engaged the attention 

 of the Officers of the Society, and I trust that, before long, the 

 Council may have some well-conceived plan for achieving that end 

 brought under their consideration. While all will agree in deprecating 

 unnecessary retardation, it must be remembered that a certain delay is 

 absolutely necessary, if the Committee of Papers is to discharge with 

 due care its important function of arriving at a sound judgment, 

 after considering the opinions of responsible specialists on the merits 

 of each paper submitted to it. In substance, I do not think that we 



