. THE FUNCTIONS OF A LOCAL NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. I7 
and the result is that, after the lapse of some years, it is found that 
the brass has emigrated bodily, either to the Continent or America. 
As well as the written history, everything possible should be learnt 
of the prehistoric inhabitants, their modes of life, etc. —this is the 
more important whien we recollect, as Professor Boyd Dawkins truly 
_ said, that the descendants of the men and women who were dug 
; up in the Stapenhill explorations are still among us. The 
scientific genealogy traces the effects of each fresh admixture of 
races, and how the various factors have produced the present 
average man. 
Then Zoology and Botany examine and record every species of 
animal and plant found in the neighbourhood, the time of the year 
in which each appears, the habits, food, and instincts of the animals, 
and the kind of soil in which each species of plant flourishes. 
Sportsmen, even with no knowledge of systematic natural history, 
‘may aid us here, for no one can be a successful sportsman who is 
‘not a keen observer of the habits of the animals and fishes that he 
“pursues ; and it is a misfortune that so many mute, inglorious 
‘Miltons have passed away, leaving no record of the knowledge 
they have thus gained. In this neighbourhood fere nature have 
become extinct almost within living memory, as the deer and 
badgers of Needwood Forest. The lower creation as well as man 
is susceptible to changes of habit from its environment, the loss of 
waste lands, etc. These altered conditions affect the struggle 
existence, giving one species an advantage and leading another 
to destruction, unless it can adapt itself to the change. Not only 
the systematic Botanist and Zoologist, but also the Anatomist and 
1 Physiologist are wanted with scalpel and microscope to investigate 
the structure of the tissues and organs, and determine their uses, 
and also to examine the changes occurring in the development or 
