PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
143 
The Council of the Linnean Society decided, after due con- 
sideration, not to appeal against this decision. Mr. H. M. 
Makinson and Mr. J. J. Fletcher, as executors of Sir William 
Macleay, subsequently stated in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, 
of November 14th, 1894, that had they been parties to the suit 
they would certainly have appealed. In arriving at the decision 
not to appeal, the Linnean Council were actuated, partly by the 
desire for peace and quietness, but chiefly by the consciousness of 
lack of funds to enable them to cany on a protracted legal 
contest, which might in the end have involved the Society in 
heavy expenditure. 
Subsequent to this decision by the Court of Equity, the Senate 
appointed a committee consisting of the Chancellor, the Vice- 
Chancellor, Dr. MacLaurin, Sir Arthur Renwick, Dr. Sydney 
Jones, Professor Liversidge, Mr. H. C. Russell, and Professor T. 
P. Anderson Stuart to advise them further on the subject. As 
recommended by this committee, the Senate sent circular letters 
to the principal European and American Universities, asking for 
as full information as possible on the subject of the teaching of 
Bacteriology. Replies to these circular letters are now being 
received. It is hoped that it will be possible to have an appoint- 
ment made to the Chair of Bacteriology by the beginning of the 
Academic year in 1896. 
Australian Museum. 
Dr. E. P. Ramsay, owing to continued ill health, was forced 
last year to resign his position as Curator, after over 20 years' 
service. Mr. R. Etheridge, junr., who had for a considerable 
time previous been discharging the duties of acting Curator, has 
been appointed his successor. 
The lack of funds during 1894 very much retarded the general 
work of the Museum, the efforts of the staff being chiefly confined 
to the preservation, and in some cases the rearrangement, of the 
existing collections, with the view of making room for future 
additions in the already overcrowded cases. The Mammalia have 
been enriched by the addition of examples of the second Australian 
