Sheppard: Yorkshire’s Contribution to Science. 2B 
its ups and downs—for a few years it flourishes, which usually 
means it begins publishing; then the cost of the production 
becomes difficult to meet after a few years, and so the publication 
ceases ; sometimes the society ceases also. 
From a somewhat intimate acquaintance with the meetings 
of our natural history, geological and antiquarian societies, as 
well as with their publications, I have been led to seriously 
consider whether the time has not arrived when some change 
should take place in the nature of those meetingsand publications. 
A century ago our philosophical societies led the way. Their 
meetings were well attended, papers were read, discussed and 
printed. They were of such a character that a good proportion 
of the hearers could understand them and appreciate their import. 
As time went on the subjects became more and more special in 
their scope, though, from a strictly scientific point of view, prob- 
ably more important. The papers appealed to fewer and fewer ; 
discussions became a thing of the past, and the membership grew 
less. To keep up an interest, the ‘ popular’ lecture made its 
appearance, with the great aid of the lantern, and more recently 
with the cinematograph, and so ‘popular’ have these become 
that their titles only are mentioned in the Society’s Reports ; and 
at the meetings themselves there is a frantic rush for the door 
immediately the lecture is over. In fact, at some societies in the 
county at which I have lectured in recent years, even the vote of 
thanks is dispensed with in order to prevent the annoyance made 
by hurrying feet during the few brief moments that are occupied 
by the passing of the vote. 
To carry on the work originally performed by these philo- 
sophical societies, county societies and field naturalists’ clubs 
came into being. As already pointed out, their meetings 
and discussions were quite as interesting and quite as 
valuable as were those of their predecessors. But they, in 
turn, except in cases where great care is exercised, are as- 
cending or descending in the same way, and interest in them 
is being lost. I am familiar with quite a number of important 
societies in Yorkshire to-day, geological, antiquarian, and natural 
history, which are exhibiting traces of this senile decay. These 
meetings lack the enthusiasm of former days; the papers read are 
too technical ; their publications appear less regularly, and when 
they do, are certainly ‘thinner’ and contain a large percentage of 
papers which can only appeal to a very small section of the 
members.* 
* An experiment in this direction was recently tried by the Geological 
Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, and proved thoroughly suc- 
cessful, as was reported in The Naturalist for December, pages 390-2. A 
meeting was held at Hull, which occupied the afternoon and evening of 
Saturday, November 7th. Over a dozen short papers were read and dis- 
cussed, each one given in simple language, and was readily understood by 
the large audience from various parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
1915 Jan. 1. 
