444 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ation of living animals, and exhibiting them to the 

 public, would become the powerful and efficient 

 promoter of zoological science, and be honoured and 

 extolled throughout Europe. Opposed, as we always 

 have been, to that illiberal feeling which the influence 

 of one or two of its members have diffused over its 

 councils, we firmly believe that a beneficial change 

 has already begun its work. That when the sub- 

 stance, and not the shadow, of scientific zoology will 

 be better understood, the Zoological Society will 

 realise all that its real friends and its supposed 

 enemies can possibly desire. 



(306.) It is upon this, more than upon any other 

 society, that the benevolent duty devolves of put- 

 ting aside a small percentage from their funds for 

 decayed naturalists, and their families. Zoological 

 collectors, exploring wild and often unhealthy re- 

 gions, are exposed, more than any other descrip- 

 tion of men, to the chances of a premature death. 

 It is fit, therefore, that an association like this 

 should be mindful of men so deserving ; and, 

 should they have families, administer to their 

 widows and their orphans some small support out 

 of their abundant wealth. What " golden opinions" 

 might be gained from all men, if the society, for in- 

 stance, set apart the shillings paid by the visiters to 

 their museum, for the purpose of forming a charitable 

 fund of this description ! How cheerfully, for such a 

 purpose, would visitors part with their money ; for 

 how nobly would it be appropriated ! * 



* A case of peculiar distress is now before the scientific 

 world. The late Rev. Lansdown Guilding, one of the first 



