PREFACE. 
IX 
worst, tliey begin to mend:” and certainly it was so here—the 
very difficulty of our position compelled a strict attention to 
economy and also induced the most energetic efforts to in¬ 
crease the income of the Society; and it happened fortunately 
that at this very time, for I am speaking of a period no more 
remote than 1849, the Society had the good fortune to obtain 
the services of an efficient Secretary of good business habits 
in the person of Mr. Douglas, and however little that may 
be the general impression among those inexperienced in such 
matters, it is of vastly greater importance that our Secretary 
be a good man of business than that he be a scientific Ento¬ 
mologist,—not but what it is advantageous to combine, as in 
Mr. Douglas's case, the two qualities, but of the two the 
former is by far the more important qualification, as I had 
abundant opportunity of ascertaining during my own service 
as Secretary. 
The Society, which in 1849 only numbered 71 Members, 
has now (including the new class of subscribers) more than 
double that number; and to all appearance the present number 
will be again doubled before another six years have elapsed. 
Commensurate with the increase in the number of members 
of the Society and consequently of its funds has been an 
increase in the bulk and utility of the Transactions of the 
Society, which now appear regularly at quarterly intervals. 
That this rapid increase in the number of the Members of 
a London Scientific Society is a strong indication that the 
votaries of the science which it fosters are becoming generally 
more numerous, no one can deny, and that a taste for Ento- 
mology will yet become still more extensively diffused is a 
conclusion which few w ill probably be inclined to dispute; 
and this Annual hopes that it will be found no mean con- 
