THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
Delivered at the Annual Meeting, January 22, 1881.
BY RAPHAEL MELDOLA, F.R.A.S., F.C.S., etc.
Vice-President of the Entomological Society of London,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Although our Rules do not make the delivery of
an annual address a necessary part of the duties which
devolve upon your President, I think that the custom of
reviewing the labours of the Club annually is a healthy
one, and on the occasion of this our first Anniversary it
will not be amiss to express the hope that this custom will
be regularly observed by our future Presidents.
In taking stock of the work done during the first year of
our existence, we have every reason to congratulate our-
selves upon the general success of the Club ; and I do not
think that I go too far when I state that it is impossible to
name any other Society of a similar character which has
grown so rapidly within such a small period of time. From
the 140 original members entered down to February 28th
of last year—the date of the delivery of my inaugural
address—we have now risen to about 240 members, and
candidates for admission still continue to come forward.
It is often observed, however, that when an organism
grows too rapidly, a constitutional weakness is the result,
and I should be no true friend of the Club if I reviewed
our work solely from an optimist point of view ; it will be
more conducive to our future welfare if I point out what
appear to me to be certain weaknesses, so that some of