17 
YORKSHIRE’S CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE. 
(Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, delivered 
at the Unwersity, Leeds, 5th December, 1914.). 
By T. SHEPPARD, F.G.S. 
THE various Presidents of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, in 
whose steps I have the honour to follow, have, since 1877, dealt 
with a great variety of subjects in their addresses. Occasionally 
these have assumed the form of a general discussion on current 
scientific events ; more rarely have they been suspiciously like 
a ‘popular’ lecture, but as a rule the President for the year 
has selected some topic which he has made a special study. 
The address of my immediate predecessor, Mr. Harold Wager, 
may be taken as an example, and I know of no better way in 
which your President can give you of his best, than by reviewing 
some subject that he has made peculiarly his own. 
In endeavouring to follow this admirable lead, however, I am 
at once in a quandary. Lack of years and lack of experience 
have prevented me ‘specialising’ in any particular direction, 
even had ability and inclination directed. Instead, I have 
preferred the plan of trying to learn something of everything 
rather than everything of something, though in these days, both 
these tasks are impossible. 
The best way, perhaps, to become thoroughly familiar with 
an object is to possess it, and the desire to possess is likely to 
develop into a collecting mania, which I am afraid may some 
day seriously “get hold’ of me. But I find on enquiry that 
nearly all my friends interested in natural science, even those 
who have reached the top of the tree (if I may so refer to a naturalist 
without any hint as to his ancestry), began their careers by 
collecting. Those who have preferred to try to know everything 
of something have naturally confined their attentions to one 
particular branch of collecting, and for the most part are not 
very harmful. In my own unfortunate case, however, the vain 
attempt to know something of everything has, perhaps, resulted 
in a species of collecting objects of such different descriptions and 
from such a variety of sources, that my efforts have possibly been 
misunderstood. At any rate, I distinctly remember being 
greeted by a Professor at this very University, and a predecessor 
of mine in this chair (I will mention no names) with, ‘ Well, 
Sheppard, and how’s thieving ?’ 
I mention this because I want to impress upon you the fact 
that Iam obviously in the early stages of a scientific training. I 
have not yet been able to follow any special line of research, 
and therefore, my address must necessarily fall far short of 
the standard to which you are accustomed. Iam still, in a small 
1915 Jan. 1. B 
