taut points Lave been published fi"om time to time iu tbe diffei-eut 

 BoieD title periodicals. 



The JiJveuiug Meetings have been held quite regularly, and 

 fairly attended ; always including several ladies, who have taken an 

 intelligent interest in the scientific business. And this your Com- 

 mittee regards as a gratifying fact, because it affords evidence of a 

 disposition in the sex to enjoy amusement and instruction at once 

 inexpensive and useful ; and the value to them of some knowledge 

 of natural science is now vmiversally admitted, and has long been 

 recognised iu high quarters. Thus, for example, the illustrioua 

 Bi'itish Admiral, Lord Culliugwood, in the midst of the arduous 

 diities of his eminent station, in 1806, the year after the memorable 

 battle of Trafalgar, was not unmindful of the pleasures and advan- 

 tages which his children ought to derive fi'om natural history. 

 ' I would have my girls,' he writes to his wife, ' gain such know- 

 ledge of the works of the Creation, that they may have a fixed idea 

 of the nature of the Being who could be the author of such a 

 world.' 



But the benefit of natural history is by no means confined to 

 teleology or natural theology. The importance of natural science has 

 at last become well known to the educated public generally, and re- 

 cognised in our great universities specially. Besides the eminent 

 physical utility of such pursuits, they arescarcely less valuable morally. 

 They multiply and refine enjoyments, and beguile idle time, then not 

 idly spent. They may alleviate affliction and will cherish content- 

 ment; displace sordid cares and sensual degradations, by pure 

 enjoyments at once social and independant ; endear many a rural 

 walk with delightful associations of flood and field, of each bushy 

 dell and bosky bourn ; and by such means lead us to a grateful 

 appreciation of the blessings which ai'e so lavishly provided for our 

 pleasure and profit, and in short to see the Creator in the creation. 

 At all events, the interest and value of natural science can no 

 longer be contemned ; for it has now become part and parcel of the 

 course of liberal studies, and is advancing with such rapid and 

 eignificant strides that it must be entertained accordingly ; and it 

 may be hoped to allure the understandiDg to its own improvement. 



These are but a few of the reasons which your Committee might 

 urge for the consideration of the many persons whose position 

 renders them more or less responsible for the education of the 

 rising generation, to contribute by all legitimate means towards the 

 cultivation of natural history ; and even if such reasons should seem 

 ineffectual, it is surely, on the lower ground of mere polity, the 

 interest of society that the popular mind should be engaged as much 

 as possible in humanizing and insti-uctive pursuits. Indeed, the 

 evidence has now become irresistible that this is a serious social 

 Cjuestiou, the significance of which is so rapidly appearing more and 

 more plainly, that to persist in ignoring it would be a violation of a 

 manifest duty. 



Excursions have been frequent during the last year, when a few 

 members joined in agreeable rambles about the neighbourhood, and 

 brought the results, whether botanical or zoological, for examination 

 and discussion at the scientific meetings. Occasionally there were 

 larger gatherings, such as that in which numerous members were 



