2i6 The Irish Naturalist, November, 



amount of sound general knowledge and to stimulate the desire for more, 

 and for a considerable time these continued to fulfil precisely the object 

 for which thc}' were intended. Written by acknowledged leaders of 

 thought, they challenged the attention of educated and intelligent people 

 to whom perhaps science had not meant much before. But by fostering 

 the desire for more accurate and detailed knowledge these primers con- 

 tributed perhaps to their own extinction, for with the increase of special 

 training and the dissemination of expert knowledge they have been more 

 and more supplanted b}' the educational text-book used in schools, and 

 the advanced specialist treatise. From the point of view of the amateur 

 this is to be regretted ; for he can no longer get an adequate insight into 

 the modern advances of science without either going through a course 

 of special reading in text-books of various grades — for wdiich he has no 

 time — or attempting to master a treatise which he can hardly be 

 expected to understand without a preliminary training of some sort. 



Moreover, it must be remembered that the intelligent amateur no 

 longer necessarily belongs to a class outside scientific circles as he did 

 formerly, but he is frequently quite learned in one branch of science 

 though be may be the merest amateur in another. And yet he is in 

 danger of being placed in a position somewhat similar to that of his pre- 

 decessor, the amateur of sixty years ago. For him the introductory text- 

 book is too laborious and in a sense too elementary, the treatise is too 

 technical and is expressed in a language which he cannot understand. 

 On the other hand, the magazine or newspaper article he dare not trust. 

 Several good scientific journals exist which appeal to a wider public 

 than the specialist, but even here the articles are too often expressed 

 in language which cannot be understood by the ordinary reader. 



Is not this also true about the societies ? The greater societies are 

 becoming every day more highly specialised both in their publications 

 and in their membership ; there are very few which occupy themselves 

 with more than one branch of science; and even those few which profess 

 to cover a wnder field break up into sections. 



If it be difficult for the intelligent amateur to extract information from 

 the scientific text-book or treatise, how much more difficult is it for him 

 to learn anything from the proceedings and meetings of these societies, 

 in which it often happens that a paper, though read in a meeting of 

 specialists, can only be fully followed by twt> or three of those present .' 



The result is that our intelligent amateur, whether he be a scientific 

 man or no, is placed very much in the position where he was sixty years 

 ago ; and I believe that now, as then, he may find salvation in the local 

 scientific society, if it really attempts to meet his wants. Cannot the 

 Local vSocieties, in addition to their ordinary work, make a special effort 

 to satisfy the educational needs of the great many intelligent people who 

 have not been trained in. or have not had access to, laboratories, 

 mu.seums, and scientific libraries, or biological field-work. 



It is true that for their working purposes, especially if they are natu- 

 ralist or field clubs, it is advisable for societies to break up into sections, 

 but if only they could succeed in keeping their members together upon 



