346 The Scottish Naturalist. 



work done by them, and not merely by the amount of intellectual 

 food consumed in them without visible result. 



In the case of provincial societies there can be little doubt that, 

 at the present time at least, among the most productive subjects 

 of study is the wide field afforded by the exhaustive investigation 

 of what lies closest at hand. There is no need to search painfully 

 for something to investigate. The materials are everywhere around 

 us with which to build up a portion of the great edifice of human 

 knowledge ; but the builders are few and weak. Among the data 

 from which information in regard to the laws that rule living 

 organisms may be gathered are the existing distribution of animals 

 and of plants, and the variations that follow changes in the en- 

 vironments amongst which they live. It is not easy to solve such 

 problems ; yet on their successful solution there will follow a very 

 great advance in the clearness of our conceptions of the laws that 

 regulate or modify the form and the structure of living beings. 

 But to comprehend fully the nature of the problems to be solved, 

 and to discover their solution, will necessitate long-continued and 

 most careful observations, and far-reaching conceptions of the 

 physical and chemical forces, both in their present manifestations 

 and in their modes of action in the past history of our globe, and, 

 it may be, of the whole universe. Such observations can be 

 carried to a successful issue, and can lead to well-founded con- 

 clusions only when they are undertaken by many observers, working 

 under various conditions. Hence careful observations from any 

 area, however limited, will add to the material ready to the hands 

 of builders of the future temple of science. 



No field is too barren to yield a harvest in the realms of natural 

 science if it be but thoroughly wrought ; nor may any society 

 plead with truth that it is not in a position to do good and en- 

 during work. Let each society undertake earnestly and con- 

 scientiously to learn what can be discovered of the products of its 

 own neighbourhood ; and, however poor the fauna and flora may- 

 seem, or however little interest may seem to belong to the geology 

 or to the antiquities of that neighbourhood, a short experience will 

 suffice to prove how erroneous were first estimates, and to suggest 

 subjects of inquiry sufficient to engage the members of the society 

 in long-continued original observations, productive of valuable 

 results, and far surpassing in interest any mere attempts to com- 

 prehend the work of others, apart from original investigation.' 



