X PR?:SIDENT S ADDRESS. 



Natural History studies set forth so gracefully and forcibly, that 

 if they are not naturalists already, they ma}^ rely on becoming 

 so. 1 should like to see every boy and girl in this country in 

 possession of this charming book. 



It would be easy to compile a long list of benefits which 

 the work of Naturalists has conferred on their fellows. But it 

 is unnecessary in a society like this ; though, even here, where 

 so much encouragement is given to the employment of the 

 microscope, it may not be amiss for the younger members to be 

 reminded that to the use of that invaluable instrument the 

 world owes the researches of Berkeley among the Fungi, and 

 Dallinger and Drysdale's wonderful discoveries concerning the 

 life history of Monads. 



For the sake of those who must have a utilitarian 

 reason for everything, I will occupy a few more minutes in 

 giving a short account of Mr. Darwin's last published researches 

 as an illustration of the usefulness of Natural History studies 

 generally, and to show that, where we least expect it, valuable 

 results, of benefit to mankind in general, are yielded by the 

 observations of the working Naturalist. 



Most people know the common earth-worm by sight, and if 

 they have not made its acquaintance as a useful adjunct to a 

 day's angling, they have probably done so in their garden, where 

 it is usually regarded as an unmitigated nuisance, to be killed 

 and got rid of in some way or other. Mr. Darwin, 

 with the care with which all his many and valuable observations 

 have been made, has now extracted from this " common object" 

 a mass of information which ought to ensui'e the prolonged 

 longevity of earth-worms all over the world. He has shown 

 that more than ten tons of dry earth annually passes through 

 the bodies of the worms, and is brought by them to the surface on 

 each acre of land in many parts of England. This large 

 quantity of soil is subjected, as it passes through the worms' 

 bodies, to the action of an acid secreted by the worm having a 

 solvent influence on the soil, and as many of the particles of soil 

 consist of morsels of rock m a non-disintegrated condition this 



