4.46 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
_ of the chief members who have been taken from its 
ranks. In this respect the speeches or reports of 
H.R. H. the President of the Royal Society, are 
admirable models, and deserve to be imitated by 
every society. The separate reports might then be 
collected into one, and printed. By thus committing 
the different branches of science to those most 
conversant with them, this collection of reports 
would assume an importance far greater than any 
other, the work of one or two individuals only, 
could possibly enjoy. The range of the physical 
sciences is now so wide, so many discoveries and 
revolutions are continually going on in each, and 
the diversified knowledge necessary to appreciate 
the true value of these changes so vast, as to render 
it beyond the power of any mind, however powerful, 
to grasp the whole. ‘This difficulty, however, would 
be entirely done away with by the plan now sug- 
gested. The funds of the society might not allow 
the institution of prize essays ; but it would be highly 
to the advantage of science if each section proposed, 
in committee, some one particular subject for re- 
search or investigation during the next year; the 
best essay or paper upon which might be printed at 
the expense of the society, and some honorary 
mark of distinction might be conferred upon its 
author. In natural history, for instance, no subject 
could be more appropriate than the confirmation or 
fallacy of any particular theory upon natural affi- 
nities ; always taking care to select, as the proposed 
theme, some subject which will call into application 
those Baconian principles of philosophy a which 
all true science must repose. 
