OO  — ————— 
ANNUAL MEETING—PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 141 
Once more, let me respectfully remind you that it will afford our 
Society much gratification if the result of your visit to Leicestershire 
iunay be such a united and exhaustive treatment of some subject of 
scientific pursuit as shall make it memorable—if not for some fresh 
conquest, yet for the increase of that steady habit of local observation 
and the cultivation of that scientific spirit which must tend to make our 
information more accurate, and our views more philosophical. 
The Leicester meeting of the Midland Union, held on Tuesday and 
Wednesday, May 20th and 21st, under the presidency of G. Stevenson, 
Esq., whose address is given above in full, was a most successful and 
enjoyable one. It attracted a goodly muster of members from nearly all 
the Societies, who were entertained with unbounded hospitality by their 
Leicester friends. A full report of the proceedings will be given in our 
next number. How the visit of the Union was regarded by the local 
press will be gathered from the following extract from the Leicester 
Chronicle of May 24th:—‘*The second annual meeting of the Midland 
Union of Natural History Societies, which took place in Leicester this 
week, was in every respect a marked success. The attendance at the 
conference, conyersazione, and excursion must have exceeded the 
sanguine expectations of the promoters; the arrangements fully 
sustained the strain to which they were thus subjected; the atmospheric 
influences were propitious and genial—in short, everything combined to 
render the event as enjoyable as it was fortunate. The Presidential 
address was a model of what all inaugural discourses should be. 
Though creditably brief, it gracefully and admirably summed up the 
raison d@étre of the Union, and pointed the way to new discoveries 
and conquests amid the open secrets of field, rock, and wood. The great 
desideratum in this branch of investigation at the present day is 
painstaking, p2rsevering, and above all, organized and systematic 
research. To spread the available fund of talent and energy over the 
whole of the vast field of enquiry is simply to fritter away inestimable 
possibilities of usefulness, and court failure. If, therefore, the Union 
does no more than gather up and concentrate upon a few important 
problems, the hitherto desultory and discursive labours of our naturalists, 
it will thoroughly justify its claim to the thanks and support of the 
community. Research without organization, comprehensive co-operation, 
and method, must necessarily be alike inefficient and uncertain. But let 
the Union adopt the admirable plan of concerted action in specified fields 
of study, with periodic meetings, reports, and comparison, and the inves- 
tigations will be redeemed from the double evil of confusion and barren- 
ness. The Leicester students of natural history are peculiarly fortunate in 
possessing within easy reach a storehouse of treasures likeCharnwood Forest. 
It is much to be regretted that the taste for the study is still imperfectly 
developed, and that only the comparative few of our vast population 
ever realise the inexhaustible mine of health and wealth which has been 
placed almost at their very doors. We hope the Midland Union may 
either directly or indirectly create a popular taste for the sweetest 
influences of Nature’s loveliness. The naturalist, by his pensive rambles 
