CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES, 65 
President of the two Associations which he represented, and he claimed that 
they had done what was in their power to form an educational centre in 
their district of London, and in one direction they had so successfully educated 
their members that quite a number of them had sought and obtained fellowship 
of the Society of Antiquaries. 
The phase of education to which the President had particularly directed 
their attention was that of the education of the general public. The only 
point in which they had perhaps failed in their original intention, to his 
mind, was, that they began with the idea of combining Archeology or 
Antiquarianism and Natural History, and that their contributions to Natural 
History had been very slight, and practically they had abandoned that branch. 
He was sorry that it was so, but it could not be helped; a different people were 
interested perhaps in Archeology from those who were interested in Natural 
History. 
He thought that in striking an average of 200 as the membership of local 
societies the President had erred in excess. 
Mr. W. Wurraker (Essex Field Club), who seconded the vote, urged that 
in estimating the value of societies they must not be led astray by numbers; 
they should consider the proportion of working members. On the question 
of lectures, those ‘to’ the Society were supposed to instruct, not only the 
societies, but the inhabitants generally, and very often these lectures were 
more or less open—even free, or fort some slight payment. The primary 
object of local societies was to deal with more local science; their next duty was 
to spread abroad that knowledge. That was where the educational part came 
in. They could not, however, do that until they had started the first. Then 
another way in which local societies might do good in their neighbourhood 
in an unpretentious way was by helping the schools. Schools would be glad 
of assistance as to the fauna and flora of their districts. He was speaking 
now of pupils being taught something of their surroundings. It was a teaching 
that appealed to those who were taught. He had the pleasure of doing 
something of the sort himself. For instance, he had fifteen ov sixteen girls 
from a school as an audience over Hampstead Heath. They really appreciated 
seeing things and having them explained, and he was told by one of their 
teachers that they had investigated for themselves and they wanted to see 
what there was under the soil. If you could get a spirit of that sort in the 
schools it would grow. It gave an appetite that would increase, a healthy, 
wholesome appetite. There was, further, the effect of this work on 
the teacher. Some teachers were apt to forget that those they taught had not 
the knowledge they had themselves. Taking the children out brought them 
into more intimate contact with those they had to teach; they got a better 
idea of what to teach and how it was to be put. 
In museums it was very important that local societies should get into touch 
with the local authorities. His idea was, that in large places there should be 
some meeting-place belonging to the local authority, where not only their 
natural history societies but other public societies and public bodies should 
have some sort of resting-place or meeting-place. 
However humble their societies might be, they might and should exercise 
a considerable influence on the educational work of our country. 
Mr. Rozserr CocksurN Mutter (Edinburgh Geological Society, and 
Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society), who gave a list of 
the societies of Edinburgh, said that one of the difficulties that they had 
—and he could speak as a contributor to several of the societies for many 
years—was that of funds. The subscriptions were small, and in these days 
the publication of ‘ Transactions’ cost a good deal. It was a curious thing 
that, while there were charities of all kinds, there had been wonderfully little 
contributed to these societies, although they had done an immense amount of 
very valuable work. . 
_ With regard to the subject of the President’s paper, he said that a field 
naturalists’ society which was in the fiftieth year of its existence had a very 
large number of members who were engaged in teaching, and it was very 
encouraging to see the enthusiasm of these teachers in finding some new kind 
of plant or animal, and in ascertaining from the others, or else from the 
