74
THE COMING OF AGE OF
cases no longer on our list of members. This continuity of
association between past and present officers and the existing
Club, composed largely of a newer generation, is certainly a
remarkable feature in our history and is the best guarantee of
future stability.
The fact that our list of members is now being recruited by
the younger generation that has arisen since the time of our
foundation is. to me one of the healthiest signs of progress.
Those who have only joined our ranks in recent years, and who
are not familiar with our early history, may be interested to have
from one who has been for so long intimately associated with the
work of the Club a summary of the results which we have given
to the scientific world in justification of the position which we
assumed at the outset of our career. The inaugural address which
I had the honour of delivering from this chair on February 28th,
1880, and from which I have taken the liberty of quoting the few
extracts above, clearly defined our position as a scientific society.
I now claim the privilege as the deliverer of that first presidential
address, and by virtue of the office which you have again conferred
upon me, of summing up our achievements during the past twenty-
one years for the information of our newer members, for the
encouragement of our old and tried colleagues and for the benefit
of the future prosperity of the Society.
It is not my intention on the present occasion to recapitulate
the steps in the history of the development of the Club, since a
concise summary was given in the Council Report for the year
1900, and published in the Essex Naturalist (vol. XII., p. 37).
Neither do I intend to trouble you with the usual statistical
statements showing the fluctuations in the numbers of our mem-
bers, since these will be found in the various annual reports of
the Council. But with regard to the personnel of the Club I
should like to take advantage of the present opportunity of going
over the death roll of our members in order to emphasize our
scientific strength in the past with a view to handing on to
the future that same scientific ideal which we have always
endeavoured to maintain. The list of Honorary Members as
it now stands, and which we have at this meeting strengthened
by the names of Sir Wm. Thiselton Dyer, Profs. E. Ray
Lankester, Marshall Ward, G. B. Howes and J. B. Farmer,
Messrs. C. H. Read, H. B. Woodward and W.H. Dalton, is