342 ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES. 



incredible that the cost of transferring them from some 

 distant region should deter us from attempting their 

 naturalisation among us. We are therefore inclined to 

 attribute the slow introduction of the different species 

 of animals to ignorance of the fact that many of them 

 will thrive when obliged to live on vegetable matters 

 unlike those to which they have been accustomed. 

 The mode in which natural history has been studied 

 has had much to do with the result which we deplore. 

 Under pretence of being rigorously scientific it did not 

 concern itself with practical utility. But now the use- 

 ful application of the knowledge acquired by the labours 

 of the traveller and the naturalist is that which causes 

 them to be so generally appreciated. The discovery of 

 a new production, or of a new property in some pro- 

 duction already known, is hailed as an acquisition to 

 the general good. When science is thus valued its 

 progress is assured and rapid : the speculations of 

 philosophy become the everyday facts of common life. 



The useful application of all knowledge is also im- 

 mensely promoted by the gregarious tendency of our 

 modern society. This is the age of companies, societies, 

 committees : co-operation gives us zoological gardens, 

 and, last of all, Acclimatisation Societies, whose avowed 

 object is to disseminate the fruits of the tree of know- 

 ledge, and plant its seeds wherever there is the pro- 

 spect that they shall germinate and prosper. 



In this rivalry to be first in scattering the bounties 

 of Providence, France has been, and is, conspicuous. 

 Her naturalists have been eminently successful in 

 popularising their science by demonstrating its public 

 utility. Cuvier and G-eoffroy Saint-Hilaire have found 

 zealous successors in the distinguished men who con- 

 duct the Acclimatisation Society, whose yearly Eeport 

 is a most valuable repository of all relating to the 

 practical application of whatever is known in natural 

 history. Whoever is in search of information the most 

 recent and trustworthy regarding fish-culture, silk- 



