60 
The Presidential Address. 
of which we have been obliged to defer from last year. In 
the early days of our existence we experienced the usual 
difficulties of young societies—I refer to the difficulties of 
getting scientific support. Happily that complaint is a thing 
of the past, and with our increasing numbers there has come 
a steady influx of substantial contributions to our ‘ Trans¬ 
actions.’ From the day of our foundation I have maintained, 
and I still maintain, that the larger portion of the Club’s 
income should be spent, and indeed cannot be better spent, 
than in the judicious publication of such papers as come 
legitimately within our province. By this means alone can 
we hope to keep up our position as a county Club, since our 
distant members would receive but little in return for their 
subscriptions did they not have in a permanent form an 
account of our doings at head-quarters. But the question 
with which I have to deal is fortunately not one of to publish 
or not to publish, but simply how much we can afford to 
publish in the course of a year. During the past year we 
have found, in fact, that our very moderate rate of sub¬ 
scription has not sufficed to enable us to keep pace with the 
publication of papers as they were contributed ; and we have 
therefore been compelled, as the only means of controlling 
our expenditure, to delay the issue of another part of the 
* Transactions ’ till the present year. Part 7 is only now 
going through the press, and will shortly be distributed 
among our members. Were this delay forced upon us 
merely by virtue of our income being insufficient to meet our 
requirements we should have but little to reproach ourselves 
with, and indeed we might fairly congratulate ourselves 
upon having such a wealth of material to draw upon. But 
unfortunately much of our difficulty has arisen from a 
tardiness on the part of many of our members to discharge 
their obligation to the Club at the commencement of the 
year, when the subscriptions become due. 
There is another consideration also which must be borne 
in mind in this connection. In these days of rapid progress 
in science many papers lose in interest by delay in publication, 
and authors whose contributions we most value may thus be 
