26 
The Presidenfs Address. 
The President then delivered the following Address : 
The President's Address /or the year 1863. 
By R. J. Farrants^ Esq. 
Gentlemen,, — This is the twenty-third anniversary of the 
Society. In the usual retrospect of our aifairs for the past 
year, the subject which, on this occasion, properly has prece- 
dence is the proceedings (and their result) of the Committee 
appointed at the last annual meeting to confer with the 
Council on 'Hhe publication of our ^Transactions/ and the 
supply to the members of the ' Quarterly Journal of Micro- 
scopical Science.-' ^' Your Committee, having inquired into 
the matter referred to them, made a report to the Council, 
which led to a conference between that Committee and a 
Committee of the Council appointed for the purpose. The 
whole subject was fully considered at the conference, and a 
course of action recommended to the Council, in conformity 
to which they resolved to rescind the agreement then in force. 
This having been done, proposals were offered by the editors 
of the ' Journal,-' to which the Council assented, and a new 
arrangement was settled, to take effect from the commence- 
ment of the present year. This arrangement the Council 
believe to be a fair one, and trust it will be mutually advan- 
tageous to the parties interested in it. While it continues in 
force the members of the Society will be supplied with a 
copy of the ^ Journal,' together with the ' Transactions,' as 
has been usual of late years, and our finances be considerably 
benefited. 
The reports which have been read show a satisfactory state 
both as regards members and finances. It is gratifying to 
find that the number of members suffers no diminution, not- 
withstanding the establishment of numerous provincial socie- 
ties with similar objects to our own. The existence, in full 
activity, of the Microscopical Societies of Bradford, Hull, 
Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Southampton, is known 
to us by their proceedings published in the ^ Microscopical 
Journal.' I hope, however, the Metropolitan Society will 
still continue a centre of union to many, if not to all engaged 
in microscopical observations. That this hope is not ground- 
less is proved by the steady increase of the number of mem- 
bers shown by the annual reports of the last ten years. 
