JUN 24 1920 | 
Noe o/ 209 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. ase> 
SOUTH EASTERN NATURALISTS. 
The South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, modelled 
after the style of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, reached 
its majority this year, and between May 24th and May 27th 
held its twenty-first annual Congress at Tunbridge Wells, the 
place of its birth; in fact the Society is said to have been 
actually born in the pump-room there! As we in Yorkshire 
look upon our society as the father of Unions of this description, 
(the Lincolnshire Union being another healthy child—a ‘ Mid- 
land’ Union dying in its infancy), the present writer gladly 
accepted a kind invitation to join the Congress. And the fact 
that he received a special vote of thanks from the Council for 
his attendance, with a request that he might visit them again, 
is some indication that he behaved himself as a parent should. 
THEIR METHODS. 
The meetings were presided over by the Rev. T. R. R. 
Stebbing, M.A., F.R.S., who was the first president of the Union. 
In some respects the South-Eastern Union’s meetings were 
reminiscent of the early days of the Yorkshire Society. There 
was not quite the monotonous harmony which sometimes 
characterises old age. At present our southern friends seem 
to confine their efforts to an Annual Congress, with very 
enjoyable picnics in the afternoons ; receptions, popular lectures 
and visits to cinemas in the evenings, and morning sessions 
for papers and discussions and occasional meetings of delegates. 
On these occasions the heat with which the delegates indulged 
in the feast of wisdom and flow of soul was certainly rem- 
iniscent of the General Committee meetings, held years ago 
in connection with the Yorkshire Society. 
A COMPARISON. 
At present, however, the southern society is still youthful. 
It likes an enjoyable outing. It isstill exuberant. It has not 
settled down to the serious work by means of various general 
and special field excursions, and by the formation of sections 
and committees, that obtains in Yorkshire, though there were 
certainly signs that the society was ‘ coming of age,’ and more 
inclined to follow definite lines of research, and one or two 
committees were formed with that object. After the Congress 
the various papers and addresses are recorded in the annual 
South Eastern Naturalist, which, last year, appeared with 
commendable promptitude. 
A MINIATURE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
In a way the Tunbridge Wells Congress was very like a 
British Association meeting, on a small scale. The men, 
however were distinctly in the minority, though quite a large 
proportion had reached their three score years and ten, and 
not a few had passed their eightieth milestone. These latter 
might easily have been the youngest in the party, whether 
1916 July 1. 
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