Annual Meeting.] 
270 
[May 6, 
bership in advantageous directions. The establishment of the 
Natural History Gardens will not only enlarge our influence 
among classes of people not reached by other work done by the 
Society and greatly add to our membership among them, but has 
already had one immediate effect worthy of special mention. It 
has brought into more active co-operation with us a number of 
gentlemen now on the Board of Directors, and in the Chairman 
of this board we welcome, as an addition to the ranks of our 
executive officers, a gentleman who has held all the official posi- 
tions in the gift of this Society, and who has been noted for his 
untiring devotion to its interests for a period of thirty-five years. 
The Curator has often had occasion to remark the exceptional 
plasticity of the organization of this Society and the practical 
directness of its modes of procedure, which have been demon- 
strated by the ease with which reforms have been introduced and 
carried into effect. This capacity for adaptation to new circum- 
stances and the quiet but efficient modes of working were never 
better illustrated than by the history of the past few years. In 
the annual report for 1889 it was remarked that u It is certainly 
very creditable that a conservative body of people having a fixed 
policy and a successful history could be moved to undertake a 
new enterprise involving so much labor for the benefit of the 
public, and it is an unusual event in the history of similar institu- 
tions.” This comment has. become still more significant in view 
of the important reforms carried into effect during the past offi- 
cial year. The Society has replaced its ancient Constitution and 
By-laws by a simpler and more direct set of regulations under 
the single title of By-laws. This and the reorganization of the 
Society was necessary in order that we should be able to enlarge 
our membership for the benefit of the Natural History Gardens 
and at the same time hold the old organization intact and safe 
from interference within the new one. Two years of work by 
different committees were required before this work was com- 
pleted, and presented by the Council to the Society. This seems 
an unnecessary length of time but it had been obvious from the 
start that it was far more important, in view of our responsi- 
bility to those who have intrusted us with funds to be adminis- 
tered for the benefit of science and the public, to make no mis- 
takes, than to conciliate impatient criticism through any hasty or 
ill-considered action. 
