stock of human knowledge. In Epping Forest and the County 

 of Essex we have a fine area to work in, and I am happy to 

 say that we already include in our ranks many members well 

 versed in special branches of natural history (using this term 

 in its widest sense) to whom we shall look for assistance in 

 their respective subjects ; and I am also glad to be able to 

 announce that many eminent specialists outside our own 

 Society have promised their valuable aid in identifying speci- 

 mens or in other ways promoting the objects of the Club. 

 Our chief object, the advancement of natural science, will be 

 best effected by the publication of original papers, notes, and 

 discussions. But we must likewise bear in mind that science 

 will be also indirectly promoted by mutual intercourse and 

 instruction, and, above all, by fostering and educating the 

 scientific faculty in our younger members. Who knows but 

 that in the County of Essex there may be another John Eay 

 or some future Darwin waiting only for encouragement and 

 the spirit of emulation to develop faculties which will subse- 

 quently establish him in a high position in the world of 

 science. The discovery of such an individual would surely be 

 of far greater importance to science than the discovery of a 

 species new to the British fauna or flora. It is our duty to 

 go forth into the highways and byeways and bring such mem- 

 bers into our fold. The sociable gatherings of a Field Club 

 are far more calculated to inspire the young scientific aspirant 

 with confidence in his own powers than the more formal 

 meetings of a learned Society, where stern discussion is neces- 

 sary, and where valuable metal must be separated from 

 useless dross by a process of rigid criticism. Nor can our 

 older members, whether naturalists or not, fail to derive 

 benefit from association with those who have studied for 

 themselves some page in the great book of nature. In these 

 days when science is progressing with such gigantic strides 

 that no one man can keep pace with its development in all 

 branches — when specialism has become an absolute necessity 

 for individual advancement, and when results of value can 

 only be obtained by rigidly limiting oneself to some restricted 

 subject, and ignoring, for the time, the rest of nature — there 

 is much to be learnt by interchanging ideas \vith those who 



