NATURE 



[Dec. II, 1873 



working societies in the kingdom. Under its auspices the 

 Scottish NaturalistKs published, and a Flora and Fauna of 

 the extensive and varied county of Perthshire isbeingbrought 

 out ; recently we noticed a proposal issuing from one of the 

 members for the establishment of a British Naturalists' 

 Agency. A very laudable though somewhat Scotch ap- 

 pendage has just been added to the Society, in the shape 

 of a " Perthshire Mountain Club " for the exploration of 

 the Perthshire mountains, more especially those that have 

 been neglected b)' naturalists, with the following office- 

 bearers ; — A cairn-master, a scribe and naturalist, a geo- 

 meter, a bard, and, to crown all, a quaigh-bearer, a quaigh 

 being a two-eared drinking-cup from which to quaff the 

 "mountain-dew " withal. 



Another Scottish club that we deem worthy of special 

 mention is the Alva Society of Natural Science and Ar- 

 chreology, whose history has been one of continued suc- 

 cess. There can be no doubt, the secretary informs us, 

 that this Society has tended to foster a taste for natural 

 history in the neighbourhood, and encouraged the obser- 

 vation of local phenomena. It was founded in 1862, and 

 now numbers no members belonginj; to all classes of 

 society ; the patron being the Earl of Kellie, the president 

 the sheriff-substitute of the county, the vice-presidents a 

 medical practitioner, a grocer, and a wine-merchant ; the 

 councillors a clergyman, a bank agent, a hairdresser, an 

 architect, and an ironmonger ; the treasurer a druggist, 

 the secretary a medical practitioner, the curator a black- 

 smith, and the librarian the governor of the prison. The 

 object of the Society is the study of natural science and 

 archajology by the exhibition and preservation of speci- 

 mens, the reading of communications, by lectures, excur- 

 sions, and the formation of a library and museum. The 

 number of members has become so large, and the collec- 

 tions of the Society have so accumulated, that their 

 present place of meeting has become too small, and the 

 Society has therefore contracted to have a special building 

 erected for its own use, at a cost of about 1,600/., raised 

 by subscription from among the members and the noble- 

 men and gentlemen of the neighbourhood. The papers 

 read at the monthly meeting are printed in one of the 

 local papers, the type being afterwards broken into pages, 

 and a small volume of transactions thus published for 

 each year. One of these volumes we have before us, and 

 its contents are varied and exceedingly creditable, though 

 we miss a list of the fauna and flora of the small 

 county of Clackmannan, in the county town of which the 

 Society has its head-quarters. We hope this excellent 

 Society will make the compilation of such lists part of 

 its work in the future. 



Our space only permits us to name the Largo Field Natu- 

 ralists' Society, on the north shore of the Frith of Forth, 

 a society founded in 1S63, and which, to judge from the 

 papers read and the secretary's report to us, is doing ex- 

 cellent service in connection with the natural history of 

 the county of Fife ; it appears to have a valuable collec- 

 tion of specimens. We mention these three societies 

 because, in some respects, they are worthy of imitation by 

 other similar associations, and because, we regret to say, 

 Scotland is not represented in the list of field-clubs in 

 anything like the proportion, even considering its size, 

 that England is ; very large districts, which we are sure 

 would yield abundant fruit of a rare and interesting 



kind, being entirely unworked by any club. We 

 hope in the course of a very few years to see this defect 

 remedied. 



In the three years 1871-2-3, at least twenty-seven new 

 societies have been formed ; there may have been more 

 of which we have not heard. Fourteen of these have 

 had their origin during the present year ; and if field- 

 clubs continue to multiply during the remaining years of 

 the decade in the same proportion, we may expect to see 

 very few districts in England and Scotland at least, with- 

 out its local field-club. We had hoped that the in- 

 quiries of the British Association Committee on this 

 subject might have given an additional impetus to the 

 spread, as well as to the usefulness, of such societies ; but 

 we fear that hitherto this committee has done absolutely 

 nothing. 



We cannot conclude this part of the subject without re- 

 ferring to the field-clubs of Lancashire and the west of 

 Yorkshire. In Lancashire there are a number of field- 

 clubs * composed almost exclusively of working-men, 

 some of which have been in existence for many years, and 

 all of them, we believe, in excellent working condition. 

 In Lancashire there are at least eleven of such clubs, one 

 of which is among the most efficient field-clubs in the 

 kingdom. This is the Todmorden Botanical Society, 

 which may be taken as a specimen of these Lancashire 

 clubs, and of which Sir Walter Elliot thus speaks : — 



" One of the most successful of the above is the Tod- 

 morden Botanical Society, established in 1852, principally 

 through the exertions of IVIr. Stansfield, who has always 

 been its president. The bulk of the 185 members are 

 working-men, who pay a subscription of i>s. a year, meet 

 on the first Monday of every month, and in the winter, on 

 the intermediate fortnights, for lectures and papers ; and 

 make six field excursions, four within ten miles, and two 

 longer ones, extending into neighbouring counties, and 

 even as far as Scotland. They have a good herbarium, 

 and have prepared a flora embracing a space of six miles 

 round Todmorden. They have also acquired a library of 

 600 volumes, chiefly botanical." 



We can only briefly refer to the West Riding Consoli- 

 dated Naturalists' Society, which at present, as will be 

 seen from our list, consists of an amalgamation of twelve 

 local clubs, belonging to various towns in the West 

 Riding, and all of them, like the Lancashire Societies, 

 composed mainly of working-men. Each of these 

 societies has, we understand, its own district in which to 

 carry on its field-work, and the united societies have 

 stated meetings, but so far as we have ascertained, they 

 have not yet decided upon a satisfactory modus operandi. 

 The amalgamated societies have, however, a journal in 

 common, " The Yorkshire Naturalists' Recorder," in which 

 their proceedings are published, we believe monthly. 

 There is no doubt that if their united societies could 

 devise a satisfactory organisation in which to carry on 

 their work in co-operation, great good would be. the 

 result. Their example might, we think, be followed with 

 advantage by other contiguous small societies, which we 

 fear are often apt to get disheartened from the paucity of 

 working members, and a feeling of isolation. This is 



* We regret that these were omitted from our list, as we got no informa- 

 tion from them, and Sir W. Elliot does not give them in his list, only referring 

 to them for some reason in his address. 



