The Scottish Naturalist. 9 



interests, in the selection made. It is fortunate for Britain that 

 such a disappointment occurred ; for it has secured to his own 

 country the services of one of her most eminent living Natural- 

 ists. Not the less is it the fact, however, that he was beaten in 

 his own particular field by a competitor who has acquired a 

 greatly inferior reputation, though he is nevertheless a Naturalist 

 of whom the Canadians have every reason to be proud. But 

 Huxley's case is not a parallel to Brewster's ; for he had not, 

 when a candidate for Toronto, achieved the same kind or de- 

 gree of distinction to which Sir David could point when he 

 contested with Forbes the Edinburgh Natural Philosophy Chair. 

 On the other hand, the University of Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, showed an example to all the world, when it offered its 

 Chair of Zoology to the Swiss Naturalist, Louis Agassiz, and so 

 secured for that enlightened commonwealth the services of a 

 Professor of cosmopolitan reputation ! 



WORK AND INFLUENCE OF LOCAL NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETIES.* 



BY J. ALLEN HARKER. 



HP HE opening meeting of another session seems a not unfitting 

 •*• occasion on which to set before you a few considerations 

 on the work which local societies for the study of Natural His- 

 tory appear specially adapted to perform, and on the benefits 

 which I consider them capable of conferring, not only on their 

 members, but on those who may be occasionally brought in 

 contact with them, and whom they may in some degree be ex- 

 pected to influence. Having clearly apprehended the nature 

 and extent of the whole work, it will be well further to indicate 

 those methods of employing the resources at our command, 

 which a little experience suggests as best suited to the attain- 

 ment of the objects we have in view. It is not necessary at 

 present to enter into the history of societies of a nature similar 



* Abridged from a Paper read before the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, 

 \st September, 1870. 



