THE PROVINCE OF A SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 

 PKESIDENTIAI. ADDRESS i-.y Dr. GRAHA^r WILLS. 



'J'he annual int'L'ting- of the La>l Kent 

 Natural Histurv and Scieutific Society was 

 lield in the Reference Library of the Beaney 

 Institute OQ the evening of the 18th inst. Dr. 

 Graham Wills (the president of the Society; 

 was in the chair, and there were also 

 present : Mr. and Mrs. Siduev Harvev, the 

 Rev. C. R. L MeUowall. Mr. and Mrs. Lewi.^;, 

 Miss Masou, Miss Abbott, Mr. Cuthbert 

 Gardner, Mr. UuderhiH, Mr. Storr. Mr. 

 Walter Cozens, Mr Surrey and the Hon. 

 Secretary (Mr. A. Lander). 



The Hon. Secretary Hrst reminded Ihe 

 meeting of the keen interest taken in the 

 Society by the late Dr. James Reid. and the 

 following resolutiuu was directed to be sent 

 to the relatives. 



■■ That this meeting desire; to express its 

 sympathy with the family of the late Dr. 

 James Reid, who died on September 14th, 

 1911, and was one of the founders of this 

 Society. The meeting gratefully records 

 his labours and contributions towards the 

 Society's work in every department of natu- 

 ral hibtory to which he was, from the very 

 first, a constant contributor. At all tinip-.; 

 setting an admirable example of what a 

 hard working, energetic and enthusiastic 

 naturalist should be — minutely accurate, 

 strictly systematic, and strongly opposed to 

 anything slipshod in observation. His 

 value to the Society cannot be overesti- 

 mated, as he was for several year>; our 

 Honorary Librarian, and contributed very 

 liberally to the Library by repeated and 

 valuab'e gifts of books. The memory of his 

 example should never be forgotten." 



The officers of the Society were ali re- 

 elected as last year. 



Mr. Lander announced that in a mouth's 

 time Mr. Jeffs would give them a lecture ; in 

 December Mr. Cozens would give a geological 

 lecture on his trip lo the North of Scotland 

 (illustrated); in January Mr. Underhill 

 would lecture (illustrated) on the Cathedrals 

 and Churches of the North of France ; in 

 February the Rev. C. R. L. McDowall would 

 deliver a lecture on " Grecian Pottery." and 

 Mr. Sharp would lecture in March on a sub- 

 ject which he believed was " The Dawn of 

 Freedom in Italy." It had appeared to the 

 Committee that last year they had rather too 

 large a programme, and it seemed advis- 

 able to have meetings ouce in three weeks 

 or ouce a month instead of once a fort- 

 night. It was felt that it would be better 

 to get a smaller number of meetings with 

 larger attendances than more frequent meet- 

 ings with .smaller attendances. 



Mr. Cozens presented a brief financial 

 statement. He mentioned that i:4 had been 

 received in subscrii)tious, and that (here 

 were arrears of £16. They were owing about 

 the s-*me ow»»\ut as the arrears, m* tbiit 



when tliey had got in the arrears the So- 

 ciety would be perfectly solvent and have 

 the eojuing year's subscriptions to the good. 



THE president's ADUBESS. 



The fresident delivered a highiy mrerest- 

 ing address, in which he dealt" with the 

 question of the advisability of popularising 

 the programmes of their Society. He ob- 

 served that an investigation had been ma<le 

 by the Committee, but after much careful 

 consideration the result was not such as to 

 encourage the Society to lay any scheme of 

 alteration before the Society. S'ucli reasons 

 were based upon the whole question of the 

 attitude of the public towards science. In 

 the further course of his speech Dr. Graham 

 Wills said : I think it is necessary for us to 

 bear in mind that at this present time wc 

 are in a sort of transition stage; rapid 

 changes are the order of the day, and for 

 us to make changes until we have accu- 

 rately guaged the trend of modern require- 

 ments may be as inadvisable as the prover- 

 bial "swopping of horses while crossing a 

 stream." While weighing the pros and 

 cons of the matter of our programme I set 

 myself certain questions which, if aceuratelv 

 answered, might guide to a satisfactory cou- 

 clusion. 



1. What are the objects of a Scientific 

 Society? What is the best way to caiTv 

 them out ? 



2. Is the public ol the present time as 

 a body really interested in scientific methods 

 or only in the results of those methods y 



3. Is the best interest of science really 

 advanced by attempts to popularise it be- 

 yond a cei'tain point? 



4. Do not the methods employed in pre- 

 paring a popular programme involve rather 

 a descent to the dead level of popular know- 

 ledge rather than an elevation of the stan- 

 dard, and further, do not these methods in- 

 volve a large amount of sacrifice of detail, 

 and, in many cases, of accuracy? 



5. What is the state of affairs in other 

 kindred Societies to our own? 



6. Does our Society meet a want which is 

 not otherwise provided or not? 



I will pass over my first question, which 

 is general in its scope, and the answer to 

 which is found when we have dealt with the 

 others. The second question as to the inte- 

 rest of the public in science must, T fear. 

 be answered in tlie negative. I would un- 

 hesitatingly say that the public generallv 

 is only interested in the results of the 

 workers, not in the work itself. It is verv 

 possible that the near future mav see a veiV 

 marked improvement in this "respect be- 

 cause the elements of nature studv are now- 

 being taught in our .schools, both theoreti- 

 cally and practically, and in this way the 

 ranks of practical workei-s will be recruited 



