76 
The President's Address. 
cannot be for the want of ability or inclination that our 
members have contributed so little to the Museum^ but must 
have arisen from the subject not having been brought before 
them in a way to lead to the necessary exertion on their 
part. That such a collection as could be made amongst the 
members of our Society would be of great value in identi- 
fying species and confirming descriptions^ there can be no 
doubt^ and I hope our members will take this subject into 
their serious consideration. 
During the past year^ your Council appointed a deputation, 
with others, to wait on Lord John Manners, to endeavour to 
obtain permission to hold their monthly meetings in some of 
the rooms devoted to scientific societies in Burlington House. 
They were induced to take this step on account of the large 
expenditare in proportion to their income which they have 
to make in the form of rent. They felt that, however use- 
fully appropriated the public rooms in Burlington House 
might be by the occupation of the present societies, as they 
only use their meeting rooms for a very limited space of time, 
there could be no objection to allowing the Microscopical 
and other societies to meet in those rooms when the societies 
now located there were not using them. I am sorry to say 
that our application has not at present been successful. I 
trust, however, when it becomes generally known amongst 
the members of the Royal, Linnean, and Chemical Societies, 
that the Government has no objection to the use of their 
meeting rooms, by other scientific societies, on evenings 
when they do not need them for their own purposes, that 
they will, for the sake of the interests of the sciences, open 
their rooms to their scientific brethren. The saving of so 
large a sum as the rent of the meeting rooms of societies 
not assembling in Burlington House for the purposes of 
scientific research and publication would be very great, and 
it is to be hoped that some arrangement will be shortly 
come to by which so desirable an object may be attained. 
At our last monthly meeting, the Council announced their 
intention of holding the next annual soiree of the Society 
at the South Kensington Museum. The commodious suite 
of rooms at South Kensington have been liberally placed at 
the disposal of the Society, and they hope on this occasion 
to present a display of microscopes and microscopic objects 
that will be a complete illustration of the present state of 
microscopical science. They feel^ also, that it will give them 
an opportunity of inviting a larger number of scientific 
friends than can be assembled in the very limited space of 
their present meeting room. It is hoped, too, that by such 
