INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 175 



consequently a large total expenditure, a single society rarely contains 

 a number of members having the leisure and means sufficient to form 

 a company which will subdivide the expenses so as to reduce them to a 

 reasonable amount per head ; but in the larger association the necessary 

 number ought to be easily found. Such excursions, iudei^endently of the 

 direct results which may be expected from the opportunities they afford 

 for investigations of new sources of knowledge, would have the 

 inestimable advantage of intimately associating for a lengthened period 

 the best Naturalists of the district, whereby many valuable friend- 

 ships may be formed, and thence some indirect benefits to science 

 be expected to accrue. I can speak with the more confidence on the 

 subject, as I have enjoyed and witnessed the results of our own less 

 extended excursions to such places as Teignmouth and Arran. I have 

 heard the many expressions of satisfaction at the pleasm-e deiived from 

 the opportunities of friendly intercourse of members who previously 

 were comparative strangers to one another, and noted with satisfac- 

 tion the increase of practical knowledge gained of subjects, which before 

 had been confined to the comparatively imperfect information to be 

 derived from books. For the latter class of excursions association of the 

 societies generally is not necessary, or even' desirable, for the numbers of 

 the members of the Union who would be wilhng to form a party to visit 

 a place of such surpassing interest as Arran, where the botanist, 

 zoologist, or geologist can revel in the superabundance of objects of 

 his special pursuit, would become unmanageable, as the means of 

 accommodation in such places, although often very good, are but small ; 

 however, it may be convenient for two or more of the smaller 

 societies to associate for these excursions ; probably the best number for 

 the purpose is twenty, and the best destination, if not pre"viously visited, 

 and even then so many fresh objects might not be found elsewhere, is 

 AiTan. 



I have to the best of my abihty endeavoured to show what may be 

 usefully done by the Union. I have one suggestion to make to the indi- 

 vidual members of the several societies. The Union is, speaking 

 generally, strong in proportion to the number of societies of which it is 

 composed ; the societies in proportion to the number of their members. 

 It is, therefore, the obvious duty of every member to induce his friends 

 to join his society; he may meet with the objection on the part of his 

 friends that [they are not Natui'ahsts ; he must urge in reply that, 

 although working Naturalists are few, all are interested in natural 

 phenomena, and all can, by subscribing to its funds, assist a society 

 which is working much good in cultivating intellectual pursuits and 

 disseminating valuable knowledge. It is without doubt true that many 

 are deterred from entering on the most engrossing and enchanting 

 pursuit, which has even banished ennui and melancholy from its happy 

 foUowers, by the mistaken idea that no progress can be made in it 

 withoiit painful application to the study of the technical details of the 

 refined distinctions, which are supposed to be the boundary marks 

 between one and another species or variety, and of the too often 

 unmeaning and barbarous names violating all rules of grammar and 



