36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



of the jiutlioritative materials of tlie systematic and descriptive 

 work of Liun^eus was of the first im])ortance. They were the 

 court of final appeal in regard to every thing Linnaeus had described 

 from materials in his own possession, and they supplied the means 

 of authoritatively determining the value of the names which had 

 been given by Hudson and AVithering to the plants of Britain, 

 and of discovering the synonyms of earlier authors. 



There existed in London, at the time to which we refer, a small 

 society devoted to the study of natural history. It seems to have 

 been a kind of mutual improvement society, having no purpose 

 of adding to general knowledge hy the publication of memoirs. 

 The Natural History Society was founded in October 1782, and 

 continued to hold its meetings for several 3-ears after the beginning 

 of the present century. When the meetings could no longer be 

 kept up and the Society was dissolved, the books and other pro- 

 perty Avere handed over to the Linnean Society, including the 

 ivory hammer Avhich is still used by your President at every 

 meeting of the Society. The illustrious John Hunter was a 

 member of this society ; and Dr. Smith was received into its fellow- 

 ship when he settled in London. In 1785 he became a Fellow 

 of the Eoyal Society. 



The need of a Natural History Society which should not limit 

 its operation to the mutual benefit of its members became obvious. 

 Extensive collections both in zoology and botany existed in Lon- 

 don : the Botanic Grardens contained many uudescribed novelties, 

 and the natural history of Grreat Britain \Aas not fully explored. 

 The Eoyal Society, having the whole range of the sciences as its 

 field, did not condescend to this systematic work. No medium 

 for publication existed. The novelties included in Museums and 

 Grardens, or brought home by collectors, and the observations of 

 students, were being lost to the world except ia the few cases 

 where the costs of publication Avere borne by wealthy authors or 

 patrons. 



The new impetus given to natural-history investigations by the 

 arrival of the Linnean collections in London made the need of 

 isuch a society more urgent. Dr. Smith secured the co-operation 

 of twenty naturalists, and summoned a meetiug for the 26th 

 February 1788. Seven men, in resj^onse to the invitation, met at 

 the Marlborough Cofl'cc-house, near Dr. Smith's own house. 

 Though the youngest individual present, Dr. Smith was installed 

 as President and delivered as his inaugural discourse an able and 

 learned exposition of the "Kise and Progress of Natural History,' 

 and placed before his colleagues a succinct statement of the 

 purposes for which the society Avas established. It is not sur- 

 prising that a young man, not yet 30 years of age, filling the 

 presidential chair, the possessor of the Linnean collections, and 

 the scientific representative, so to speak, of the illustrious 

 Swede, should have been impressed with the great authority of 

 Tiinnjeus and have enforced it on the society. He thought that 



