ADDRESS. 
Read by the. President , T. Southwell, F.Z.S., to the Member x 
oj the Norfolk awl Norwich Natural Ms’ Society, at their 
Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting , held at the Norwich Museum, 
March 27 th, IS Of 
Ladies and Gentlemen — In vacating the chair to which you did 
me the honour to elect me a second time twelve months ago, it 
becomes my duty to give an account of my stewardship ; but I 
think that such an auspicious occasion as the twenty-fifth anniversary 
of the birth of our Society calls for more than the ordinary notice, and 
offers a fitting opportunity to review, not only the work of the past 
year, but also to take a retrospective glance at our doings throughout 
the quarter of a century, during which w r e have been in existence, — 
to consider in fact to what extent we have justified our existence as 
a Society, and how far we have succeeded in carrying out the five 
fundamental “objects,” which, to keep fresh in our memory, we 
print on the fly-leaf of each number of our ‘Transactions.’ 
In March, 1869, some few individuals interested in Natural 
Science met together to consider in what way they could best render 
each other mutual assistance in the pursuit of their favourite study, 
and induce others to take an interest in what to them had proved 
a source of so much enjoyment ; the result of this conference was 
that a meeting was held in the Museum on the 30th of the same 
month, at which the twenty gentlemen then present decided on 
the formation of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society. 
A code of Rules was adopted and Officers chosen, and on the 
27th April, 1869, in this room, the first regular meeting was held, 
M M 
VOL. V. 
