Microscopical Society of Victoria. 
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ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 
Thomas Shearman Ralph, M.R.C.S. Eng. 
Assoc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 
[Delivered to the Members at the Annual Meeting, held on the 
31st October, 1878.] 
Gentlemen of the Microscopical Society of Victoria, 
Again it lias devolved upon me, as your president, 
to address you at the close of another year, and in so 
doing, I must recount the progress and position of the 
society as a working community in the large field of natural 
science. I shall first of all briefly place before you what 
work has been done in our midst, and then glance at general 
matters connected with our peculiar pursuits. Our last 
annual meeting was held on the 25th October, 1877, and 
since then this society has held nine general meetings, at 
which subjects of various lands have been discussed or 
brought to the notice of the members by communications in 
the form of papers, notes, or specimens. For instance, we 
have had an interesting paper contributed to the society by 
Mr. Wooster, on some native Sand Flies; exhibition of various 
forms of Gorcjonia and Foraminifera by the Rev. J. J. Halley; 
a notice of Phylloxera , with specimens of the larval state and 
perfect insect, from the vineyards at Geelong; also, a brief 
notice, by Mr. T. Burrows, of a peculiar form of Spider , the 
body of which was prolonged into a remarkable tail-like 
appendage. I may here notice, that I believe a splendid 
work, with plates, on Spiders, is now to be found in the 
Public Library, and that it contains descriptions of spiders 
which belong to this country, and may be of service to us 
in determining genera and species. Mr. C. M. Maplestone 
contributed a paper, descriptions of some Victorian marine 
Polyzoa , together with some excellent drawings of the same, 
executed by himself. A short notice and specimens of the 
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