134 The Scottish Naturalist. 



an amount and kind of discontent that threatened to give itself a very public de- 

 gree or form of expression ! 



(19) The season of the year usually selected for the meetings of the Associa- 

 tion, while highly suitable for the excursions that form so pleasant a feature in 

 its proceedings, is most //^suitable for lengthened indoor discourses. At Edin- 

 burgh the heat was frequently quite stifling and intolerable, rendering patient or 

 persevering listening utterly out of the question. 



(20) Many of our leading Naturalists, though they attend the meetings of the 

 " British Association," do not read papers, and take no active part in its pro- 

 ceedings. On the other hand, it is an obvious punishment to them to subject 

 themselves to the heat and crowding of the sectional rooms, and to the nuisance 

 of listening to " twice-told tales," or to manifest nonsense ! 



(21) Many of our leading Naturalists do not attend such meetings at all, re- 

 garding them as mere exhibitions of talk and sham— of egotism, superficiality, 

 and dissipation ! 



(22) Some Naturalists, who are not in the habit of attending the Association's 

 meetings, do not send papers, because (1) of the trouble involved in furnish- 

 ing abstracts to reporters for scientific and other serials, and for the general 

 press, as well as to the editor of the official report of its proceedings : (2) of the 

 comparatively limited circulation of the annual volume which contains these 

 proceedings : and (3) of the conviction that such an audience and such a volume 

 are not those most fitting for the reception or record of abstruse or purely tech- 

 nical papers. 



(23) The Association is too peripatetic. It leaves behind it no permanent 

 effect in the locality it visits : whereas it might develope local affiliated associa- 

 tions capable of collecting much valuable information regarding the flora and 

 fauna, geology and archaeology, trades or industries, history or traditions, of 

 each city and district visited. 



(24) The Association is too much in loco pauperis : too much dependent on 

 the subscriptions wrung — frequently most unwillingly— from the wealthy inhabi- 

 tants of this city or that. 



The result of summing up and balancing the disadvantages against the advan- 

 tages of the present mode of conducting the operations of the " British Associa- 

 tion"— as illustrated by the Edinburgh meeting— is the conviction that such an 

 organization — "for the promotion of Science'' by its popularisation — is in thorough 

 accordance with the spirit of the age : but that the details of its operations are 

 capable of great improvement. In particular, there is much which is at present 

 objectionable, that may gradually, with care, be eliminated : while there are cer- 

 tain advantageous features that might — and in course of time probably will — be 

 added. As at present constituted, the ''British Association" must be regarded 

 as mainly an increasingly fashionable means of social and scientific dissipation 

 or recreation. It has only a quasi-scientific character, and its very existence 

 depends on popular, not on scientific, support. The real scientific work done is 

 very small ; and it could be done more efficiently in a much quieter, less ex- 

 pensive, and less ostentatious way. 



