THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 407 



I rather like [he writes on June 2] to keep the Geog. Soc. 

 as a sort of seton upon science : it draws all odium for 

 scientific lion-hunting, toadying and tuft -hunting away 

 from the Linnean, Koyal and Geological only that the 

 latter are too fond of following in wake ! For my part I 

 eschew them all now, and intend to keep them and their 

 society at arm's length. 



And somewhat later, rejoicing that he was not on the 

 Committee of the Geological, he remarks to Huxley : ' I am 

 quite accustomed to seeing things done " more Geologico " 

 in fact the Geolog. Soc. and its attributes have been worth 

 their price to me in the valuable introduction it has proved to 

 Helter Skelter science and business.' 



Through the earlier years of this decade Hooker was specially 

 concerned with the reorganisation of the Linnean Society. 

 His object was to see the Linnean take the same position with 

 regard to Natural History as the Eoyal Society with Physics. 

 He had been elected a Fellow in 1842, and was chosen a member 

 of the Council in 1853, serving in this capacity for twenty-four 

 years, during fifteen of these as Vice-President. Once on the 

 Council, he endeavoured to carry out much-needed reforms. 

 The famous Linnean collection had fallen into a bad state ; 

 Hooker's offer to help rearrange it the year before, when he and 

 Thomson were sometimes meeting at the Linnean, had not 

 been taken up : doubtless owing to Kobert Brown's opposition 

 to any change. The printed reports of proceedings presented 

 their subjects in confused order, so that specialists had difficulty 

 in finding what they wanted. It was most desirable to separate 

 the reports, according to their kind and weight, into Proceedings 

 and Transactions (a reform in which the Linnean was antici- 

 pated by the Koyal Society, thanks to the efforts of ' the 

 small band of us yclept the Philosophical club '), and to divide 

 botany from zoology. Experience in other countries had 

 shown this to be absolutely essential, for the sake of the 

 botanical and zoological public alike, who were now forced to 

 buy reports in which they had no interest ; and for the sake 

 of simplifying the already complex bibliography. Moreover, 

 ' though you and I,' he assures Huxley, ' as joint editors may 



