I02 THE COMING OF AGE OF 



Stimulation of original local work in various branches of natural 

 science. Such lectures and addresses, although in many cases 

 delivered by acknowledged masters of the various subjects, could 

 not ver)' well be published in extenso by the Club, and so 

 the records of tliis branch of our work do not figure very 

 prominently in our printed pages. Nevertheless this work is in 

 its way both useful and important, provided it is kept in abeyance 

 as a secondary branch and not allowed, as is the case with many 

 local societies, to become the main object of the Club's existence. 

 A long course of experience in connection Avith the working of 

 local s:>cieties throughout the United Kingdom, derived from my 

 association with the Corresponding Societies' Committee of the 

 British Association, has served to convince me that the work of 

 a local society is weak in proportion as it has to depend upon 

 popular lectures for keeping it alive. 



Quite early in the history of the Club educational work of 

 this kind was undertaken and the system of popular lecturing 

 inaugurated by a lecture by Mr. Hariing on Nov. loth, 1880, 

 on Forest Animals [Trans. I., 74). The second lecture in this 

 series on January 4th, 1881, was a memorable one, as Mr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace, our distinguished Hon. Member, gave an 

 abstract of the main conclusions at which he had arrived con- 

 cerning insular faunas and floras (Pwc I., Ixvi.), the subject of 

 the great work, afterwards published under the title Island 

 Life. Again, on October 2nd, 1886 {Proc. IV., cxcii.) my 

 friend, Mr. vVallace, favoured the Club with an advanced 

 chapter of his work on Darwinism-, then in course of prepara- 

 tion. But time will not admit of a detailed list of lectures, 

 addresses and demonstrations given before the Club at head- 

 quarters or elsewhere. I need only justify this branch of our 

 work by reminding you that we have had the privilege of hearing 

 in this capacity Sir Richard Owen, Gen. Pitt- Rivers, Sir Wm. 

 Flower, Dr. Henry Woodward, Mr. F. W. Rudler, Prof. E. B. 

 Poulton (whose recent appearance on February 22nd, 1902, was 

 his third lecture to the Club), Mr. Arthur Lister, Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke, Mr. G. Massee, Mr. D.J. Cunningham ("Transformations 

 of Marine Animals," Essex Naturalist VII., 182), Prof. Charles 

 Stewart, Mr. Frederick Enock and others. Perhaps also the 

 address on "The Mechanical Questions involved in the Flight of 

 Birds," delivered by Lord Rayleigh on the occasion of the 

 Club's visit to Terling Place in 1885 (Pioc. IV., clxxiii.) may be 



