2S8 Notes and Co/zif/icn/s. 



strictly professioal arena of tlie scliool and university. The field 

 naturalists among" the squires and the country parsons seem 

 no\v-a-days not to be so numerous and active in their delightful 

 pursuits as formerly, and the Mechanics' Institutes and Lecture 

 Societies of the days of Ivord Brou^-ham have given place, to a 

 very large extent, to musical performances, bioscopes, and other 

 entertainments, more diverting, but not really tnore capable of 

 g^iving pleasure than those in which science was popularised. 

 No doubt the organisation and professional character of scientific 

 work are to a large extent the cause of this falling-ofF in its 

 attraction for amateurs. But perhaps that decadence is also 

 due in some measure to the increased general demand for a 

 kind of manufactured gaiety, readily sent out in these days of 

 easy transport from the great centres of fashionable amusement 

 to the provinces and rural districts.' 



PROFESSOR RAY LANKESTER'S REQUESTED RESIGNATION. 

 After the preceding remarks it seems somewhat fateful that 

 at the very moment when Professor Lankester was preparing to 

 discharg'e the duties of the President of the British Association, 

 the Press announced that he had been called upon to resign his 

 position as Director of the Natural History Museum, on the 

 ground that the age limit of 60 was reached. As Professor 

 Lankester points out in a letter to the Z'/wcv, the decree of the 

 Trustees simply amounts to this — they propose to remove him 

 from a post of which the salary is ;^i2oo a year and to leave 

 him unemployed, and without possibility of appropriate employ- 

 ment, at the age of 60 on a pension of ;£'300 a year. His 

 predecessor. Sir William Flower, was continued in office until 

 68 years of age, and Sir Ricland Owen, his predecessor, was 

 80 when he retired. 



CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES. 

 Two meetings of the Delegates from corresponding societies 

 attending the British Association were held, the Chairman being- 

 Sir E. Brabrook. At the first Dr. H. R. Mill gave an address on 

 ' Meteorological Observations by Local Scientific Societies." He 

 urged that there is not a sufficient number of meteorological 

 observations made. ' Vou can all do something,' he said, ' to 

 improve the official weather predictions in this country. There 

 is probablv no body in the British Isles more subject to criticism 

 than the Meteorological OlVice, whicli produces the daily forecast 



Nulura)ist, 



