^54 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



few parents in any district take counsel together, and associating 

 themselves with those who can assist in the study of child-nature and 

 training, discuss and invite lectures on various problems and difficulties 

 that present themselves. Libraries are started, training lessons are 

 given, natural history clubs are formed. Many other agencies will 

 arise as time goes on. 



The educational advantages to be gained from the study of natural 

 history are recognised by the parents who belong to the Union ; who 

 also recognise that children will not, as a rule, become keen about 

 natural history, unless their parents and teachers themselves show an 

 interest in it. But the poor parents were not taught how to study 

 natural science in their youth, and now they do not know how to set 

 about learning or how to be enthusiasts in an unfamiliar subject. 

 Fearful of being found out, the poor papas and dear mammas of the 

 Belgravia branch started a Natural History Club not quite a year 

 ago. This Club is distinctly practical in its working, and those who 

 join are required to do some field-work every summer. An Exhibition 

 of the collections made during the first summer was held some time 

 ago, and was very favourably reported on by Mr. E. Sykes, the 

 Secretary of the Malacological Society. The Club also sold to its 

 members a very suggestive Handbook, drawn up by the Lady Isabel 

 Margesson and Miss Vintner. Encouraged by their success, they 

 propose to issue shortly a more extensive Handbook, to which chapters 

 are contributed by some dozen writers well-known in their own lines. 

 This work will be published by Messrs. George Philip & Son, 32 Fleet 

 Street, and should prove useful to others than the benighted parent. 



The A.W.P.L. 

 These letters stand for the Association of Women Pioneer 

 Lecturers. The objects of this Association beautifully combine 

 •egoism and altruism. First, it endeavours to open up a new field of 

 work for women and to organise women. Secondly, this work is the 

 •extension of science and culture to places and people of all classes not 

 reached by the University Extension lecturers, and the pioneering 

 the way for those lecturers. A representative of Natural Science, 

 who attended the annual meeting of the Association at University 

 Hall, Gordon Square, on March 7, gathered the following informa- 

 tion. The Association was founded by Miss Edith Bradley about a 

 year and a half ago, and as it has not yet succeeded in paying its 

 way, is kept going largely by the exertions of that lady. A woman 

 who wishes to be a Pioneer Lecturer is required to prepare a syllabus 

 ■of ten lectures and then to deliver one of them as a test lecture. 

 Great attention is paid to proper dehvery, and those who do not come 

 up to the standard have to attend elocution classes. The lecturer is 

 also desired to " cultivate a graceful deportment and to appear in a 

 suitable and becoming costume." The staff of lecturers at present 

 numbers twenty-four, of whom eleven are University women that have 



