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