176 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



language, with wliich it has delighted many closet Natiu-alists to favoin* 

 in such Uberal profusion each individual in the organic and inorganic 

 world as to render identification sometimes impossible ; but knowledge 

 of this kind is not requisite to constitute a Naturahst. 



He who notes with intelligence the ever-varying phases of nature is a 

 Naturalist. That title could not have been denied to Thomas Edward, 

 whose charming biography by Smiles you all have, or ought to have read, 

 before he had acquired in the later part of his hfe the art of classification ; 

 and he is not a perfect Naturalist who limits himself to the technical 

 details of the science, but he who extends his observations to the habits, 

 cultivation, use, and relation to the surrounding universe of every object 

 of his scientific pursuit, may rightly claim that title. 



I hope it will not be supposed that I depreciate in any way the value 

 of the exact study of the technical details of a science ; I merely protest 

 against that view which would limit science to an index ; books are 

 comparatively useless without an index, but an index is absolutely so 

 without the contents to which it refers ; many scientists never get 

 beyond the index ; in fact, they often appear to take pains to avoid 

 giving details of general interest for fear their wi-itings, by becoming 

 intelligible and popular, should be damaged in their scientific character. 

 Our forefathers did not arrange their plants under a system of classifi- 

 cation so perfect as ours ; but they knew much more of the plants 

 themselves, and if the eclectic physician in the present day wishes to 

 learn something of their proj)erties, he does not consult a modern treatise 

 but has recourse to a black letter herbal. 



Accurate knowledge of technical details is necessary as a founda- 

 tion for the structure of the lai'ger and more valuable knowledge of 

 nature itself, and the acquisition of that technical knowledge brings with 

 it other rewards ; for the mental training, which results fi'om the 

 sustained exercise of the faculties upon a subject which requires so much 

 application and precision, eminently quahfies the student for the 

 business of life. 



I hope some of the energies of the Union will be devoted to the 

 repression of those pirates sailing under false colours, xoi-dixiint 

 Naturalists, who, preying on nature, hunt after every rare and beautiful 

 plant, or bird, or animal to destroy it, nominally on the pretence of 

 obtaining speciinens, which in many cases are not preserved, and even when 

 preserved are useless for the advancement of science, whose real object 

 is to gratify that passion for destruction unfortunately common to many, 

 and a morbid craving for notoriety, to which numerous journals pander by 

 publisliing the disgraceful fact, as if it were a subject of interest and 

 congratulation for the world to know that a beautiful living object and 

 all its possible offspring had perished for ever; I sincerely hope our 

 " Midland Naturalist " will not soil its pages with any such records. The 

 ultimate destruction of many of the most interesting of our ferce 

 naturct in a countiy where population, buildings, and cultivation are 

 rapidly extending, is inevitable, and only a question of time, but still 

 much may be done to prolong their stay with us, and the Natm-alist ought 



