Nov. 20, 1873] 



NATURE 



39 



added in 1868 to admit intelligent working-men," though 

 why this invidious distinction should be maintained in a 

 body solely devoted to scientific research, we fail to see ; 

 surely Science at least is a common ground on which all 

 classes can meet without a shadow of bitter class-feeling 

 to mar the geniality of intercourse. The more that the 

 higher tastes and recreations are common to all classes, 

 the less room will there be for misunderstanding and bit- 

 terness. If a working-man can pay the subscription — 

 and the field-club subscription is usually small, and work- 

 ing-men's wages are now unusually high — by all means 

 let them be received on a common footing with the other 

 members. Many of our best field-clubs are composed 

 almost entirely of woi'king-men, and every encourage- 

 ment should be given to this class to join such clubs, for, 

 morally and intellectually, we think they will reap more 

 benefit from such associations than any other class. 



The Berwickshire Club continues to be one of the most 

 efficient and productive in the country, the fruits of its 

 excursions being contained in six goodly volumes, con- 

 taining many valuable papers on the natural history and 

 archxology of its large district, and extensive and care- 

 fully compiled lists of the existing and extinct fauna and 

 flora. As the Berwickshire Club is the model after which, 

 to some extent, all succeeding field-clubs have been formed, 

 we shall here give from Sir Walter Elliot's address, its 

 simple and inexpensive method of conducting its field- 

 days : — " Arrangements are made with the railway com- 

 panies for the issue of tickets on favourable terms. The 

 members assemble at breakfast at 9.30, after which the 

 programme of the day is explained, and any objects of 

 interest procured since the last meeting are exhibited and 

 described. At 1 1 the party proceeds on foot or by con- 

 veyance to the points indicated, breaking into sections 

 for botanical, geological, or antiquarian research, and 

 cither meeting again at some convenient spot, or return- 

 ing independently to dinner at 4 o'clock. The members 

 present rarely exceed from 30 to 50, often fewer. Of 

 course the hive contains a considerable proportion of 

 drones who rarely appear, ladies never. The distances 

 are so great, the excursions so thoroughly directed to in- 

 vestigation, itxat few but those intent on work attend. 

 After a frugal repast, the staple of which is a fine salmon 

 invariably sent from Berwick, papers are read and dis- 

 cussed, and the members disperse according to the exi- 

 gencies of their trains. The whole expenses of the day 

 vary from four to five shillings per head." 



In the decade between 1830 and 1840, other sixteen 

 local societies were formed, many of which, though not 

 professedly field-clubs, have done, through individual 

 members, good field-club work, as is testified by their 

 publications, and have otherwise done much to promote 

 the cause of Science in the neighbourhood. It was during 

 this period that the Cornwall Polytechnic Society (already 

 mentioned), the Penzance Natural Historyand Antiquarian 

 Society, the Royal Institution of South Wales, the Ludlow 

 Natural History Society, and the West Riding Geological 

 and Polytechnic Society, were formed, each of which, in 

 its own particular fashion, does gond service to Science, 

 and helps to keep the lamp of culture burning in its 

 neighbourhood. 



No other regular field-club was instituted until nearly 

 fifteen years after the foundation of the Berwickshire 



Club, when a sort of offshoot of that Society was formed 

 in 1846 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, under the title of the 

 Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, which, "guided by the 

 experience of the parent club, at once assumed a perfect 

 organisation." The constitution wa<:, however, somewhat 

 amplified, a proviso being put in the rules that should 

 assuredly have a place in the rules of every similar 

 society in the kingdom. Its last rule, we think, worthy 

 of all commendation and universal imitation'; it is as 

 follows : — 



" That the Club shall endeavour to discourage the prac- 

 tice of removing rare plants from the localities of which 

 they are characteristic, and of risking the extermination 

 of rare birds and other animals by wanton persecution ; 

 that the members be requested to use their influence with 

 landowners and others, for the protection of the characteris- 

 tic birds of the country, and to dispel the prejudices which 

 are leading to their destruction ; and that consequently 

 the rarer botanical specimens collected at the Field Meet- 

 ings be chiefly such as can be gathered without disturbing 

 the roots of the plants ; and that notes on the habits of 

 birds be accumulated instead of specimens, by which our 

 closet collections would be enriched only at the expense 

 of nature's great museum out of doors. That in like 

 manner the club shall endeavour to cultivate a fuller 

 knowledge of the local antiquities, historical, popular, 

 and idiomatic, and to promote a taste for carefully pre- 

 serving the monuments of the past from wanton injury." 



We have more than once recently in noticing the pro- 

 ceedings of some societies, and it has been animadverted 

 on in other quarters, referred to the pernicious practice 

 of encouraging, by the offer of prizes for rare specimens, 

 especially of plants, the extermination of the rare flora 

 peculiar to certain districts. One of the prime duties of 

 every local club should be the preservation of such rare 

 specimens, the fact of whose existence is often of great 

 value from a scientific point of view, and the destruction 

 of which, by transference to a herbarium, can serve no 

 good purpose whatever. The Tyneside Club is divided into 

 six sections, each charged with a special department for 

 investigation : — i. Mammalia and Ornithology ; 2, Am- 

 phibia, Ichthyology, Radiata ; 3, MoUusca, Crustacea, 

 Zoophytes ; 4, Entomology ; 5, Botany ; 6, Geology. 

 This club holds meetings during the winter in Newcastle. 

 Up to 1864, it had published six volumes of very valuable 

 Transactions. In that year an arrangement was come to 

 whereby the members (numbering 429), became associ- 

 ates of the Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle Na- 

 tural History Society, already referred to. Thenceforth, as 

 we have already said, the proceedings of the two bodies 

 have be en published conjointly under the title of "Na- 

 tural History Transactions of Northumberland and 

 Durham," of which three volumes have been published. 

 "The work of the Club," Sir Walter Elliott says, "has 

 been most conspicuous in zoology. It has the merit of 

 publishing its lists and catalogues in a separate form for 

 sale, so as to make them accessible to all inquirers." 



We cannot mention in detail the foundation of the 

 swarm of field-clubs which have come into existence 

 in the various parts of the country since 1S46 ; we can 

 only allude very briefly to two of the most important, 

 the Cotteswold and the Woolhope, the former an offshoot 

 of the Berwickshire Club. The originators of the Cottes- 

 wold Field Club, which, like the Tyneside Club, was 

 started in 1 846, were Sir Thomas Tancred (who had been 



