Proceedings. lxxxv 
established Natural History and Scientific Society exists, and is 
willing to enrol new members. 
Our Balance Sheet, which our Hon. Treasurer has put before 
us, is in a way satisfactory—t. e. the debit balance of the past 
ten years has been changed into a credit balance, which, if 
small, leaves us in a sound position. 
Our members this year number 206; we have, I regret to 
say, lost by death 5, resigned 14, and 6 struck off. On the 
other hand, 24 new members were elected. : 
Tas Lire or Tuomas Epwarp. 
As members and fellow-workers of a Natural History Society, 
I think a very fair and reasonable question to ask one’s self 
ig—To whom are we to be grateful for the immense amount of 
knowledge of Natural History that has been handed down to 
us and published at different periods? Who have those great 
workers been who have spent their lives in research and study ? 
These are some of the great men—Edward, White, St. John, Ray. 
How thankfnl ought we to be as business men, whom cir- 
cumstances have thrown into a different channel of life,—a life 
far too civilized and far too unnatural to be in a position to 
study Nature’s ways for ourselves. How deep in darkness should 
we be at the present time had it not been for these great 
workers! For instance, what is the average routine life of a 
City man of the present day? This is about it:—Rise at 9, 
breakfast on reaching the dining-room, with newspaper in front 
of him. 9.15, just three minutes to catch the train. Newspaper 
to town office at 10. Leave at 6, train home, dinner, evening 
paper, smoke, and then to bed. ‘To-morrow, and week after 
week, the same. What a comparison to the life of a White, an 
Edward, or a St. John. 
What a charming, quiet, and ideal life is that of the naturalist 
compared to that of the rushing life of the citizen. Of course, 
it would never do for all men to think alike, or for all men to 
be naturalists; but at the same time City men might cease to 
live at this high pressure system as at present, and they might 
interest themselves more about the natural laws that are 
paramount on this planet. 
There is no doubt that the people of the present day have 
far greater opportunities for studying Natural History in all its 
branches than the people of fifty years ago. Look for a moment 
at the large numbers of fine museums, both in this and other 
countries; but I fear it is excitement only that interests the 
masses of to-day. 
It was my intention to entitle this paper ‘‘ The Lives of our 
Great Naturalists,” but I soon found time would prevent my 
