APPENDIX.

Rules for the Award of The Guy Medal."

1. The Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, founded in honour of the distinguished statistician whose name it bears, is intended to encourage the cultivation of statistics in their strictly scientific aspects, as well as to promote the application of numbers to the solution of the important problems in all the relations of life in which the numerical method can be employed, with a view as far as possible to determine the laws which regulate them.

2. The medal may be of gold, silver, or bronze; the first to be granted for work of a high character founded upon original research; the two latter for work founded on existing data. In any case the results to be first given to the world through this Society.

3. There shall be no obligation to award either a gold, silver, or bronze medal annually; but each year at the ordinary monthly meeting of the Council in April, the members shall be invited to submit the names of any authors of papers read before the Society or of work done in its interest, during the current or immediately preceding session, whom they may consider entitled to a medal of either class; that any such proposals, with the grounds on which they are made, shall be circulated to each member of Council at least a week before the Council meeting in May, when all proposals shall be considered and decided by resolution of a majority of at least two-thirds of the members then present, or the final consideration and determination may be adjourned, if necessary, until the Council meeting in June.

4. A medal may be awarded to others than Fellows of the Society.

5. The Council shall also have power at any time to grant a medal to anyone deemed worthy of such distinction by reason of special and extraordinary services to statistical science, although not strictly falling within the foregoing regulations, provided that the proposal for such an award shall in the first instance be favourably considered by the Executive Committee, and recommended by them to the Council; that notice of the proposal be placed upon the agenda for the Council meeting, and that the award shall be made by the vote of a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present.

Rules for the Award of "The Howard Medal.”

1. That a medal, to be called "The Howard Medal," shall be presented in the name of the President, Council, and Fellows of

the Royal Statistical Society, to the author of the best essay on some subject in "social statistics," selected by the Council.

2. That the medal be a bronze medal, contained in a case, having on one side a portrait of John Howard, on the other a wheatsheaf, with suitable inscription.

3. That the subject of the essay shall be selected by the Council at their ordinary meeting in May, and at the anniversary meeting of the Society the title of the said essay shall be formally announced.

4. That the essays be sent to the Council of the Royal Statistical Society, 9, Adelphi Terrace, Strand, W.C., London, on or before 30th June of the year following the announcement of the subject of the essay. Each essay to bear a motto, and to be accompanied by a sealed letter, marked with the like motto, and containing the name and address of the author; such letter not to be opened, except in the case of the successful essay.

5. That no essay exceed in length 150 pages of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.

6. That the Council shall, if they see fit, cause the successful essay, or an abridgment thereof, to be read at a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, and shall have the right of publishing the in their Journal one month before its appearance in any separate independent form; this right of publication to continue till three months after the award of the prize.

essay

7. That the Executive Committee for the time being, or any special committee the Council may appoint, in June of the year of competition, shall examine the essays, and report their decision to the Council at their meeting next preceding the ordinary meeting held in November of each year.

8. That the President shall place the medal in the hands of the successful candidate, at the conclusion of his annual address, at the ordinary meeting in November, when he shall also re-announce the subject of the prize essay for the following year.

9. Competition for this medal shall not be limited to the Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society, but shall be open to any competitor, providing the essay be written in the English language.

10. That the Council shall not award the prize except to the author of an essay, in their opinion, of a sufficient standard of merit; and that no essay shall be deemed to be of sufficient merit that does not set forth the facts with which it deals-in part, at least, in the language of figures and tables, and that distinct references be made to such authorities as may be quoted or referred to.

PROCEEDINGS of the FIFTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. The PRESIDENT, DR. F. J. MOUAT, LL.D., in the Chair.

MR. JOHN B. MARTIN (Hon. Secretary) read the circular convening the meeting.

The minutes of the last ordinary meeting were read and confirmed.

The Report of the Council was taken as read.

The PRESIDENT said he might mention, as it was not contained in the report, that the meeting in June was not held because Mr. Baines, although he had arrived in England, had not obtained all the information necessary for the paper, and could only have given it in an imperfect form. It was therefore thought better to postpone it. The competition for the Howard medal, which had been in abeyance for the last few years, had been revived, and the subject for the next essay was the State of Infant Life and its Perils and Protection. Infant life was believed to be exposed to many avoidable risks, which might be mitigated or removed by a knowledge of the causes on which they depended, with regard to which much more accurate information was required than was at present obtainable. The rules had been slightly altered, and they were therefore reprinted with the regulations for the Guy medal in the Appendix to the report in order that they might receive the formal sanction of the meeting. Not the least noteworthy incident of the past year was the resignation of the office of editor of the Journal by Dr. Robert Giffen, after holding it for eighteen years with a degree of efficiency which had been of great advantage to the Society, and of considerable benefit in extending a knowledge of the work of the Society amongst other nations. The Council had recorded their opinion of the very high position which the Society had obtained in public estimation owing to the great ability and eminence as a statistician and the literary excellence of the work of the editor. The vacant office had been filled by the appointment of the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Hooker, who had shown his capacity for the work by the manner in which he had performed the duties of sub-editor during the last year. He did not know that it was necessary to make any further remarks in continuation or addition to those contained in the report. It covered the whole ground, and showed where the weak points were. As they were losing some of their members, there might be some defect in the mode of election which probably might be discovered and remedied by his successor and those who would act with him during the ensuing year, but he did not consider the Society was at all in an unsatisfactory state, because a considerable number of those who had retired were gentlemen who had taken no active part in the proceedings, or exhibited any interest in the work of the Society. He concluded by moving that the Report of the Council, the

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Abstract of Receipts and Payments, the Balance Sheet of Assets and Liabilities, and the Report of the Auditors for 1891 be adopted, entered on the minutes, and printed in the Journal.

Mr. F. HENDRIKS seconded the motion. He considered the report most satisfactory, and was sure that it would be so considered by the Fellows at large. Very much was due to the pilot who had steered their vessel during the past year.

Mr. ELLIOTT said before the resolution was put he should like to call attention to two points which he thought might be usefully borne in mind in the coming year, especially by the younger members. The first point noticed in the report was that the number of new members joining during the year was the smallest number added to the Society's roll for the last twenty-two years. That was a distinctly unsatisfactory feature. They could not help members leaving, but they might do something to induce new members to join. In the second place he noticed that the receipts from the sale of the Journal were lower than they had been for the last eleven years, which was again a distinctly unsatisfactory feature. It could not arise from the fact of the Journal being less worth reading than it was eleven years ago, for it was larger and contained as much and more good matter than it did then. It might possibly be due to some fault on the part of the Society in bringing the Journal under the notice of the book-buying public, and they might not perhaps be quite keeping up with the times in that respect. He felt conscious that he was as responsible as anybody else for these defects, but thought it might be useful to call attention to the matter.

The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.

The PRESIDENT said the next formal business was to approve the appointment by the Council of its Trustees. The death of Sir James Caird rendered it necessary to appoint a third, and the appointment by the Council required the sanction of the general meeting. He would therefore move "that this meeting approves of the proposed appointment by the Council of James Heywood, Esq., the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., and John Biddulph Martin, Esq., to be Trustees of the real and personal property of the Society, with the exception of the leasehold house in which its business is carried on, which is to be conveyed to the Society."

Mr. HYDE CLARKE said he thought it was desirable not to forget that they were now an incorporated Society, and that it was very questionable whether it was necessary to have trustees at all, or whether it would not be better to place the funds in the name of the Society.

The PRESIDENT said he scarcely thought that could be done now, because the same subject could not be discussed again in the same session in which it had once been determined and decided by the Council. This question therefore must be deferred, or it might

be brought forward again next year. He would therefore put the resolution, when, if it were carried, the matter would be handed over to the new Council for them to take steps to carry it into legal effect.

The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.

The PRESIDENT said he was happy to inform the meeting that the proposed list of Council and Officers for the ensuing session was unanimously adopted. He begged to propose that the thanks of the meeting be given to the Scrutineers.

Carried unanimously.

The PRESIDENT then formally announced the subject of the essay for the Howard Medal for 1893, viz., "Perils and Protection of Infant Life, with statistical illustrations where practicable."

Mr. R. HAMILTON then proposed "that a cordial vote of thanks be awarded to the President, Council, and Officers for their services during the past session." He felt that not only would a long speech on such a matter be rather tiresome, but it would be like gilding refined gold to attempt to add anything with regard to the conspicuous merits of the President and officers during the past year.

Mr. J. OLDFIELD CHADWICK had much pleasure in seconding the resolution, and would not add anything to it. The record of their meetings was quite sufficient speech to all the Fellows of the Society.

The resolution was put and carried unanimously.

The PRESIDENT said so far as he was personally concerned he returned his most sincere thanks for the honour. They had passed through an exceptional year in many respects, having undergone a considerable change in the manner of procedure, &c. With regard to the suggestions of Mr. Elliott, no doubt some means should be adopted which he hoped would be more successful than they had been in the past for attracting new members and getting a sufficient supply of papers and matters for discussion. This had been a chronic complaint for many years which now seemed to have culminated, and it would be very necessary to take some steps in the matter. The income and expenditure were now very nearly equal, and therefore if any unexpected emergency arose there would scarcely be funds enough to carry on with, whereas if they could secure a permanent roll of 1,000 members, it would enable the Society to undertake all the work it contemplated, unless any very unforeseen contingency arose. He was quite sure the other officers and Council were equally grateful to the Fellows for their appreciation of what they had been able to do during the past year. He was quite certain that in the gentleman now elected to the office he had had the honour to hold, they had chosen one far more capable than he could pretend to be of conducting the proceedings with a success which he hoped would mark his reign.