I70 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept., 



venerable physician, known, not only by his writings, but also by the 

 fact that long years ago he assisted Albany Hancock in his earlier 

 anatomical investigations,^ is the only still surviving member. Mr. 

 R. G. Green and our excellent curator, Mr. R. Howse, were, however, 

 frequently invited guests. It is to Mr. Howse that I am indebted for 

 most of these particulars respecting this Club. He tells me that he 

 was a regularly invited guest from the year 1846,^ and that in 1857 he 

 attended a meeting held at Mr. Blacklock's lodgings, at the Barras 

 Bridge, to meet an old friend, William Kennett Loftus, who had just 

 returned from his Assyrian expedition and then visited Newcastle for 

 the last time. This was the latest occasion on which he attended, 

 but the Wednesday evening meetings seem to have lingered on for a 

 year or two more and then gently expired, having fulfilled their 

 mission, about i860. It has seemed especially desirable to call the 

 attention of the members of the " Museums Association " to these 

 " Wednesday evening meetings " and to the stimulus they were the 

 means of giving to the study of natural history here ; since the 

 establishment of such friendly social gatherings in other towns might 

 be productive of much good in bringing men of kindred tastes into 

 close association and creating an impetus towards active work. 



It will be noticed that the members of these meetings for the 

 most part became eminent in the branches of science to which each 

 more especially devoted himself, while at the same time they were 

 continually gaining knowledge, and more extended range of interest, 

 from the association with those who were pursuing different paths 

 through the vast fields of Natural Science. 



Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. 



It will be convenient now to refer to the Tyneside Naturalists' 

 Field Club. 



The " Berwickshire NaturaHsts' Field Club," still in a flourishing 

 condition, has the honour of being the oldest field club in the kingdom ; 

 and the Tyneside club is the next oldest, and may in some measure 

 be considered an offspring of that of Berwickshire, since Ralph Carr, 

 Esq., of Dunstan Hill, who was a member of the Berwickshire Club, 

 took a very active part in starting it, and was its first president. 



The first meeting of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club was 

 held on the 25th day of April, 1846, in the room of the Natural 

 History Society, the Rev. R. C. Coxe, vicar of Newcastle, being in 

 the chair ; at this meeting the rules were drawn up. At the ensuing 

 meeting, held on May 11, it was resolved that the Club, besides holding 



'^e.g., A. Hancock and D. Embleton, "On the Anatomy of Eolis, a genus of 

 Molluscs of the Order Nudibranchiata." Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xv., 1S45, 

 and ser. 2, vol. i., 1845, and vol. ii., 1849. 



2 1 may mention that it was in the following year, 1847, that Mr. Howse 

 published his first paper known to me, in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xix., on the 

 Dogger Bank "Fusi," and their ova-capsules and embryos, illustrated by an 

 admirable plate. 



