38 



NA TURE 



\Nov. 20, 1873 



the fitting out of a naval Arctic expedition in 1874. Mr. 

 Goschen is, we have reason to think, now conversant with 

 the subject, and, as the Minister whose duty it is to ad- 

 vance and foster the interests of the British navy, it is 

 imposible that he can fail to see the advantages of Arctic 

 service. He is supported, at the Admiralty, by Sir 

 Alexander Milne, who has ever been friendly to such 

 enterprises, and sensible of the excellent school for nnval 

 men afforded by voyages of discovery ; and by Admiral 

 Richards, the hydrographer, whose sound judgment and 

 great Arctic experience render his advice most valuable. 



The Prime Minister, with whom the decision will rest: 

 is a statesman who well knows the general, as well as the 

 scientific uses of Arctic enterprise. He formed one of 

 that Ministry which despatched the last scientific expedi- 

 tion to the Arctic Regions ; and, as a member of the 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons on Sir John 

 Ross's case, he signed a report expressing his approval of 

 Arctic voyages in the strongest terms — " A public service 

 is rendered to a maritime country, especially in times of 

 peace, by deeds of daring, enterprise, and patient endur- 

 ance of hardship, which excite the public sympathy and 

 enlist the general feeling in favour of maritime adven- 

 ture." Such were, and we trust still are, the views of Mr. 

 Gladstone with reference to the general uses of Arctic 

 voyages of discovery. When to these general impres- 

 sions are added a knowledge of the important scientific 

 and practical results to be attained, the assurance that 

 there is no undue risk, that the cost will be comparatively 

 slight, and the good both to the navy and to mercantile 

 interests incalculable, we cannot bring ourselves to believe 

 that the decision of Mr. Gladstone will not be favourable 

 to a renewal of Arctic research. 



LOCAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES* 

 II. 



ALTOGETHER, so far as we have been able toascer- 

 tain,t the number of existing local societies % which 

 have for their main, or only as a part of their object the cul- 

 ture of Science, that were established in the years between 

 1781 and 1830, are only 22. We shall see that the increase 

 since 1S30 has been enormous, though the large majority 

 of those established during the last forty-three years are 

 of a much more simple kind, so far as organisation is 

 concerned, than those estabhshed during the former 

 period, have to a great extent a different object in view 

 or rather accomplish the intellectual improvement of the 

 members after a different fashion, and are, we think, 

 thoroughly characteristic of the scientifically inquisitive 

 and increasingly intelligent period during which they have 

 been established. Not many " Literary and Philosophi- 

 cal Societies" have been established during the latter 

 period, most of them being professedly devoted to study 

 and research in Science, especially in natural history, in 

 all or one of its branches, and a large majority of them 

 being Field Clubs, as those associations are called, the 

 whole or part of whose programme is to investigate the 

 natural history (including botany, zoology, and geology) 

 of particular district s, in combination sometimes with 



* Continued from vol. viii. p 524. 



t We regret to say that none of the Edinburgh Societies have seen meet 

 to forward us information. 



t We do not include in this article the great London Societies, as the 

 Royal, the Linnean. the Astronomical, &c. 



their archceology. Indeed the last forty years might well 

 be designated the era of field clubs. 



We have already mentioned the Northumberland, Dur- 

 ham, and Newcastle Natural History Society, established 

 in 1829, which, although it has done some excellent field- 

 club work, was not professedly established for this pur- 

 pose. There can be no doubt that the first genuine field- 

 club was the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, founded 

 September 21, 1 831, though Sir Walter Elliot traces the 

 true origin of field-clubs to an association of students, 

 formed in 1823 at the University of Edinburgh, under the 

 name of the Plinian Society, for the advancement of the 

 " study of natural history, antiquities, and the physical 

 sciences in general." They met weekly in the evening 

 during the session, from November to July, for reading 

 pipers and discussions ; and also, as the season advanced, 

 made occasional excursions into the neighbouring country. 

 The chief promoters of the scheme were three brothers 

 named Baird, from Berwickshire; but John, the eldest, 

 must be considered the founder. He drew up an elaborate 

 code of laws in eighteen chapters, and, as the first presi- 

 dent, made a statement of the proposed plan and objects 

 of the society at their inaugural meeting on the 14th 

 January 1823. Among the original members occur the 

 names of James Hardie, J. Grant Malcolmson (both 

 Indian geologists), and Dr. John Coldstream ; and, at a 

 later period, those of Charles Darwin * (of Shrewsbury, 

 1S26), John Hutton Balfour (1827), and Hugh Falconer 

 (1828), with others who have since become distinguished 

 in the scientific and literary world. The latest notice of 

 the society is the session of 1829-30, up to which time 

 the Bairds, although they had left the University, 

 appear as occasional contributors. 



No doubt this Edinburgh Associationhad considerable in- 

 fluence in originating the Berwickshire Club, for two of the 

 Bairds became parish ministers in Berwickshire, and it was 

 they, along with their brother, the late Dr. William Baird, 

 of the British Museum, Dr. Johnstone, Dr. Embleton, and 

 four or five others, who met at Coldingham on the date 

 above given, and drew up the plan of the Berwickshire Na- 

 turalists' Club, " a term," Sir W. Elliot remarks, " now first 

 extended to a scientific body." Its object was declared 

 to be the " investigation of the natural history of Berwick- 

 shire and its vicinage ;" in reality its field extends over 

 the whole of Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, and the north- 

 east part of Northumberland, to the limits of the Tyne- 

 side Club's district. The rules of the club, as all rules 

 should be, are short, providing that the club should hold 

 no property, require no admission fee, and should meet 

 five times in the year at a place and hour to be communi- 

 cated to each member by tlie secretary. Thus the 

 Berwickshire Club is a field-club pure and simple, having, 

 unlike many other similar clubs, no winter meetings for 

 the reading of papers, whatever papers are read being 

 read after dinner on the days when excursions are made. 

 At the first anniversary it numbered 27 members, and in 

 1870, when Sir Walter Elliot gave his address, there were 

 249 members on the roll, including a few ladies, and " two 

 corresponding members, the last description h.aving been 



* The first paper contributed by him, entitled " On the Ova of the 

 Flustta," in which he announces that he has discovered organs of motion, 

 and, secondly, that the small black body hitherto mistaken for the young of 

 Fiicus iorctts is in reality the ovum of Pontobdfita murwata, exhibits his 

 early habits of minute investigation. 



