246 The Field Natu7'alisfs Quarterly Nov. 



own experience and the statements of many correspondents 

 prove to be much neglected. 



It is our pleasing duty to read through the annual reports 

 of most of the field clubs and societies in this country, 

 especially in the cases of those which publish annual Trans- 

 actions, and we have on a previous occasion referred to the 

 vast amount of useful information that is to be found in 

 these publications ; and have, moreover, regretted that so 

 much good work is thus locked up in local records, which 

 would be of use and interest to the community. It is one 

 of the aims of this journal to draw wider attention to such 

 work, so that students of the same subject may see what 

 is being done by others, and know where to find it. But 

 there is one class of subject that, as a rule, one may look in 

 vain for any recognition of, and one of the first importance. 

 In a word, general scientific principles are usually untouched. 



It may be said that the members of field clubs are familiar 

 with the general scientific principles upon which the sciences 

 they study are based. We should be glad to think that this 

 was the case, but we fear that too frequently it is otherwise. 

 A large proportion of the ranks of field naturalists are re- 

 cruited from those who have had but little opportunity of 

 learning the groundwork of the sciences, — and it is to their 

 great credit that they do join such societies, — but the in- 

 terest and profit they would obtain from those with whom 

 they thus come in contact would be immensely increased if 

 some effort were made to acquaint them with the natural 

 laws which govern the details brought under their observa- 

 tion. We do not complain of the detailed work being done, 

 — we welcome it, — but we should like to see it brought into 

 focus, so to speak, for the benefit of those members who 

 have never learnt the subject as a whole. 



We have seen fifty members of a field club diligently 

 collecting particular species of fossils on an excursion, and 

 wondered how many of them had anything like a clear 

 conception of modern geological thought. We have heard 

 evening lectures to societies on rare varieties of this or that 

 species of animal, and wondered how many of the audience 

 had ever learnt the general principles of animal classifica- 

 tion. At almost every meeting of a hard-working field club 



