302 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



goes, the "mode of becoming a fellow" of the Royal 

 Society, stated by Professor Babbage, is applicable 

 to nearly all. " A. B. gets any three Fellows to sign 

 a certificate, stating that he (A. B.) is desirous of 

 becoming a member, and likely to be a useful and 

 valuable one. This is handed in to the secretary, 

 and suspended in the meeting-room. At the end of 

 ten (or more) weeks, if A. B. has the good fortune 

 to be perfectly unknown by any literary or scientific 

 achievement, however small, he is quite sure of 

 being elected, as a matter of course. If, on the 

 other hand, he has unfortunately written on any 

 subject connected with science, or is supposed to be 

 acquainted with any branch of it, the members 

 begin to enquire what he has done to deserve the 

 honour ? and, unless he has powerful friends, he has 

 a fair chance of being black-balled. In fourteen 

 years' experience," continues the same writer, " the 

 few whom I have seen rejected, have all been known 

 persons. " * — (Babbage, Reflections, p. 5 1 .) 



(209.) This facility of acquiring diplomas is un- 

 questionably one of the characteristics of our scien- 

 tific institutions ; and the evils which are the natural 

 result, are already becoming apparent. An honorary 

 distinction, when the qualifications upon which it 

 was originally founded are lost sight of, so that it 



* A singular vei-ifi cation of this occurred at one of the 

 very few meetings at which, of late years, I have attended. 

 It was the case of Captain P , well known for his nau- 

 tical discoveries and inventions. The same show of opposition 

 was manifested at the election of a well known ornithological 

 painter. But in both instances, by timely exertion, this strange 

 opposition was defeated. 



