Report, Sfc. 

 INAUGUKAL PAPER, 



READ BEFOEE THE HARROW SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



Gentlemen, 



At this first meeting of the Harrow Scientific Society I have been 

 asked to read you a few preliminary remarks, by way of giving 

 shape to our proceedings, and helping us to arrive at some distinct 

 conception of our aim and object. 



The general object is easily defined; it is to promote in Harrow 

 School some interest in science, and in all studies and pursuits 

 connected with it. We hope to do this by turning our own atten- 

 tion to the wide field of observation which always lies open before 

 us, and by interesting others as far as we can in the same enquiries. 

 We believe that this can be done without any serious demand upon 

 the time which must necessarily be devoted to other duties. If, as 

 has been proposed, we meet for an hour every fortnight, and if at 

 every meeting the members record everything of interest which has 

 come under their own observation, or of which they may have been 

 informed by others, — and if, above all, we are able to adopt some 

 plan by which these observations may to a certain extent be made 

 systematic, we may reasonably expect to gather in course of time 

 (especially in the spring and summer) much interesting information 

 about our own neighbourhood. I hope that, especially during the 

 summer term, it may be one of our objects to provide for the forma- 

 tion of a museum,* either in the Vaughan Library or elsewhere. As 

 yet the only steps taken in this direction have been the presents to 

 the Library by Melvill of the "P'lora" which gained him the 

 botanical prize a few years ago ; by M. Gustave Masson of a col- 

 lection of minerals, and by Mr. Fisher of a collection of rare and 

 interesting eggs. But if the Society continues to exist, and offers 

 a prize yearly to the school for the best collection of various objects 

 of natural history, there is no reason why in a few years time, the 

 natural history of the neighbourhood should not be very fully and 

 valuably represented. The sooner that this desirable end is accom- 

 plished the better, for already the encroachments of the builder have 



• To any one interested in this project I can confidently recommend an excellent 

 little book by J. Toynbee, Esq., F.R.S., of Wimbledon, " On the Formation of Local 

 Museums." 



