PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
141 
The Marine Biological Association’s Laboratory. 
The Council would remind the Fellows that the Society, as one of 
the founders of the Marine Biological Association, has the right to 
nominate a student to a table at the Association’s Laboratory at Plymouth 
for one month in each year. The new year of the M. B. A. commences 
on June 1st next. 
Mr. E. J. Allen, now Director of the Association, was nominated to 
a table last year to enable him to continue his studies on the Decapod 
Crustacea. 
Journal. 
The Council regret to report that the communications judged appro- 
priate for the last set of Transactions fell to 10, having been 13 in 1893, 
12 in 1892, and 11 in 1891 ; it is true that the Council have been led 
by the reports that have been furnished to them to refuse a place in their 
Transactions to various papers that have been offered to them, and they 
will not cease to zealously investigate the claims of authors to a placo 
in their Transactions ; while they will thus do their part to ensure the 
high reputation of their publications they hope that the Fellows will, in 
larger numbers, offer material worthy of publication. 
The part of the Journal devoted to abstracts has been carried on on 
the old lines, and continues to be found most useful to workers. 
During the past year the hundredth number of the Journal appeared, 
and the editor has taken into consideration the question whether the 
classification of the zoological subjects could be said to be — not ahead 
of the time, for that a record should never attempt to be — but whether it 
adequately represented current zoological teaching. In these points the 
arrangement of the zoological material was far behind the times : (1) the 
sharp demarcation between the Vertebrata and Invertebrata ; (2) the 
retention of the group Molluscoidea ; and (3) an assemblage of hetero- 
geneous groups under the head of Vermes. The editor was, naturally, 
unwilling to disturb arrangements which had existed so long, but he was, 
on the other hand, unwilling to perpetuate, for perhaps another century 
of parts of the Journal, an antiquated and unscientific classification. 
With the assistance of some of his zoological friends he has devised an 
arrangement which combines the minimum of change with an arrange- 
ment which his most advanced colleagues are sa f isfied to accept. The 
Council hope and believe that the alteration will be of advantage to the 
Journal and the numerous students who consult it. 
Mr. W. T. Suffolk, the Treasurer of the Society, read the balance 
sheet for the year. He pressed upon the attention of the Fellows of the 
Society the desirability of their trying as far as possible to add to their 
numbers, as it was only by adding to their income in this way that they 
could hope to do more than publish the Journal as at present. There 
was much good work which they might do as a Society in other directions 
if the means were placed at their disposal. 
Mr. T. Comber had much pleasure in moving that the report of 
the Council and the Treasurer’s statement of account be received and 
adopted. He did not think it was necessary for him to say anything 
with regard to the Report, which he felt sure would be regarded as. 
