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37 
A Chapter in the Physical Geography 
of the ast. 
By Horace T. Brown, F.GS., F.C.S., F.1.C. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
DELIVERED 
NOVEMBER 4TH, 1887. 
YJHE first aim of a local Society like ours should be to 
make a careful and accurate record of all the 
natural phenomena of our neighbourhood ; but were 
we content with this alone, we should scarcely be entitled to 
consider ourselves a scientific body; science does not consist 
in the mere accumulation of facts, for no matter how interest 
ing these may be in themselves, we must remember that after 
all they are only a means to an end, Facts de/ong to science 
it is true, but we must look upon them merely as the raw 
material out of which we elaborate, by processes of scientific 
reasoning, great principles of universal application. 
I sometimes hear it asked whether the lists of the district 
fauna and flora, which are so carefully compiled by many hard 
working members of our local societies, have any value apart 
from that of an index to the student of the exact locality where 
he may expect to find any particular plant or insect which he 
may be studying. Now, undoubtedly, the immediate value of 
such lists is the one I have indicated, but they have a far 
greater importance than this, in affording material to the philo- 
