118 
PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
and last, but not least, by a most interesting summary by Dr. Sydney 
H. Long of the present state of our knowledge of the Mosquito- 
Malaria theory. Botany has been represented by fewer papers ; but 
Mr. Geldart has communicated to us a paper by Mr. Dixon on 
Norfolk Mosses; and Mr. W. H. Burrell has given us an account 
of Aecidium elatinum, found parasitic on Silver Firs at Sheringham. 
In Meteorology we have had Mr. A. W. Preston’s Notes for 1900, 
Mr. F. Dix’s remarkable record of observations on rainfall, extend- 
ing over sixty-three years, and a paper on Marsham’s “ Indications 
of Spring,” by Mr. Southwell. 
Several of these papers will appear in the forthcoming number 
of the ‘Transactions.’ 
I am informed by the Hon. Secretary, to whom I have to express 
my best thanks for the help which he has given me during my 
year of office, that the number of members of the Society is 246. 
We have lost five members by death, and five by resignation ; and 
we have elected eight new members during the year. 
I trust that the finances of the Society are in a satisfactory 
condition. It was decided at the January meeting to contribute 
a sum of £2 2s. to the King’s Lynn Museum now in process of 
re-organization ; but the interest of our Society in that undertaking 
must not be measured by the smallness of the help we have been 
able to give. 
It is my pleasing duty to acknowledge tbe receipt of presents of 
books from Professor Newton, Mr. J. H. Gurney, Mr. H. G. Barclay, 
and Mr. G. F. Buxton. 
The special subject to which I wish to direct your attention for 
a short time this evening is The study of the Natural History of 
Aquatic Invertebrates. I propose to illustrate this subject by referring 
to the work of two of the zoologists of the first half of the 
Nineteenth Century, and to a few recent results selected to show 
that much yet remains to be done in the study of even our 
commonest animals. 
The Invertebrate fauna of East Anglia has not received as much 
attention as it deserves to have bestowed on it. The coast of 
Norfolk does not indeed offer the same facilities for the study of 
