6 “ PART OF A LIFE HISTORY ” 
The Hon. Treasurers have been six in number. 
William Walter Stoddart, F.G.S., F.C.S., acted for the 
first thirteen years of the Society’s life ; Walter Derham, 
M.A., LL.M., F.G.S., for six years ; Thomas W. Jacques 
for six also ; Arthur B. Prowse, M.D., F.R.C.S., for 
fourteen ; Thompson Strickland for one ; while our 
present Hon. Treasurer has nearly completed two years. 
It is instructive to find from the records of the Society 
that the difficulty in obtaining subscriptions from some 
members has been by no means confined to recent years. 
At the date of the second annual meeting, May 5, 1864, 
more than half the members were in arrears ; and though 
the proportion does not seem to have been so great subse- 
quently (probably because a paid collector was soon found 
to be a necessity), yet from time to time in the annual 
Reports references occur to this apparently perennial 
difficulty. 
The subscription was at first five shillings annually, but 
in November, 1866, it was enacted that in future the sum 
should be seven shillings and sixpence. This was neces- 
sary to meet the increased cost of printing the Proceed- 
ings in a fuller and more suitable form. Hitherto the 
printing had been the annual Reports and lists of members, 
etc., together with off-prints of the accounts of meetings 
sent to the daily papers by the Hon. Reporting Secretary 
(William Lant Carpenter, B.A., B.Sc.), obtained by ar- 
rangement from the Editors, and sent to the members of 
the Society. In May, 1874, the annual subscription was 
increased to ten shillings, so that it might be possible to 
issue still better Proceedings. The sum payable for Life- 
Membership was also now raised from £4 4<s. to £5. 
The early publications were at first issued rather irregu- 
larly. In 1866 the account of meetings was first pub- 
lished in pamphlet form. January to April appeared 
under one cover, and the other parts issued were, one each 
