PREFATORY NOTICE 



TO 



Y( )Ll JME XXIX. 



The Editor apologises to the Fellows for the great delay experienced 

 in the issue of the final part of the present volume. That delay 

 is entirely the Editor's fault — or perhaps he might more truthfully 

 say it is the result of the wonderful growth of the Society of 

 recent years, rendering it impossible for one individual to perform 

 both the Secretarial and the Editorial work of the Society. 



It will be remembered by some of the Fellows, that the present 

 Secretary was elected in February 1888, when the Society left 

 South Kensington with a total roll of only 1,329 Eellows, of whom, 

 773 were subscribing Fellows, and 556 Life Fellows (whose com- 

 mutation money had already been spent) ; and even of these 773 

 Subscribing Fellows, 221 immediately resigned, so that on accepting 

 office the Secretary found : 



(1) A debt of £1,152. 



(2) An annual expenditure of £3,500. 



(3) A subscription income little if at all more than £1,500 a year. 



(4) The Publication of the Society's Journal suspended. 

 During 1888 and 1889 the debt of £1,152 was paid off, and 



the income increased by £626, and (with the single exception of 

 1894, when there was the trifling decrease of £41) every year Bine* 

 1889 there has been an annual average increase in the Society's 

 income of £753. 



