179 



TO THE EDITOK OF THE NATURALIST. 



Sir, — As a Member of the Nottingham Operative Entomological and 

 Natural History Society, allow me to express the sincere gratification I feel 

 in the perusal of your valuable journal ; and perhaps a sketch of the rise and 

 progress of the above Society may not be uninteresting to some of your 

 readei-s. 



Well, then ; about two j'^ears ago, some six or seven of us, all working men, 

 but lovers of Nature, agreed to form a society, and look into Nature's works. 

 So we commenced by paying one shilling as entrance, and one penny per 

 week subscription, for the purchase of works on Natural Histoiy ; and as 

 those works are expensive, we commenced by taking Morris' British Butter- 

 flies in parts. By the end of three months we could count fourteen mem- 

 bers. So we worked on ; and, thanks to perseverance, we have now more 

 than thirty members, with rough hands, or, as the editor of the Entomolo- 

 gist's Annual has it, with fustian jackets. But he, with many writers on 

 Natural History, does not sufficiently consider, that worldng men in general 

 have not the education necessary for understanding the names, when they 

 are all given in Latin, as is the case in the Entomologist's Annual, and many 

 other works. Wliy not give the English name as well as the Latin one, if the 

 work is intended for the English people? It would induce many a working 

 man to become a lover of Nature, instead of a curse to the nation ; for, what 

 degrades a man so much as drink? And if he cannot find enjoyment in one 

 way, he will in another. We have one member who has collected some 

 thousands of specimens ; and what does he say ? Why, that if he had not 

 been collecting, the public house would have been his lot ; so that, if we only 

 reform one, it is worth trying for. But it would not stop with one, nor fifty, 

 if all naturalists were like Mr. Moi'ris ; we should not then have to complain 

 of your jaw-breaking words; but I hope the time is coming when we shall 

 have more English, and less Latin ; the good eff'eet would soon show itself. 

 For instance ; — we have had three or four that began to collect Beetles, and 

 we had no work on the subject; we must have one; and after inquiry, we 

 were recommended to purchase Stephen's British Beetles, which we did ; 

 but instead of that interesting style which Mr. Morris gave to his Butterflies, 

 there is just the description, with the name in Latin ; so that the book is 

 almost useless to us, for the present. We have seventeen or eighteen collec- 

 tors of Lepidoptera, and if you could recommend an introduction to Entom- 

 ology, with the price, we should be very much obliged to you ; I subjoin you 

 a list of what we have got. Morris' British Butterflies, 1 vol.; Morris' 

 British Birds, 3 vols. ; Morris' Naturalist, 2 vols. ; Stephen's British Beetles, 

 5 vols. ; Westwood's British Moths, 2 vols. ; Morris' British Eggs, 1 vol. ; 

 Dialogues in Entomology, 1 vol. ; Entomologist's Annual, 1 vol. These com- 

 prise the whole of our books ; and we have some £(>. in the hands of the 



