Correspondence — Mr. A. J. Jukes- Browne. 429 



THE PALiEONTOGEAPHICAL SOCIETY. 



SiK, — By the publication of the CoiTncil's Eeport in your last 

 Number, the attention of your readers is once more drawn to the 

 Palaaontographical Society, and its need of a larger number of 

 members in order to find the necessary funds for carrjnng on its 

 excellent work. 



I think I shall be doing the Society a service if I briefly point out 

 some facts which may partly account for the falling off in the number 

 of its members. The Council regret that "geologists in general" 

 do not more readily enroll themselves as members, and they I'emark 

 that since the formation of the Society, many free libraries, local 

 geological societies, and field clubs have been established, " but that 

 the number of these institutions that have joined the Society is 

 very small." 



I venture to think that one reason of this backwardness may be a 

 feeling that the subjects of the Monographs issued by the Society 

 are not always of general geological interest, and that many of them 

 are not such as would be practically useful to the members of local 

 societies. 



It is said that a guinea a year is very little to pay for such a 

 splendid series of books, and so it is ; but if the intending subscriber 

 feels that half the contents of the volumes are not likely to be of 

 ■use to him (or to the society he represents), he is apt to think that 

 the money could be more usefully spent in other ways, or perhaps 

 he purchases secondrhand copies of those monographs which he does 

 find are frequently wanted, such as Davidson's Brachiopoda, Wright's 

 Echinoderms and Ammonites, Wood's Crag Mollusca, etc., etc. 



I feel a difficulty in expressing my meaning more plainly withrut 

 appearing to depreciate the value of many excellent and valuable 

 monographs which have been published by the Society ; but every 

 one admits that there are certain classes of fossils which are of great 

 practical use to the geologist, and that there are others which are of 

 much less geological importance, though biologically they may be 

 equally interesting. In the first category we place the Mollusca, 

 Brachiopoda, Echinodermata, Corals, and certain orders of Crustacea ; 

 among the less useful we must class Plants, Sponges, Cirripeds, 

 Entomostraca, Pohjzoa, Insects, Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. 

 This being so, it is surely desirable that prominence should be given 

 to the more important groups, and until these have been fully 

 described and figured, very little space should be given to those of 

 less general value ; particularly should the delineation of large 

 Vertebrate remains be postponed in favour of the Invertebrate fossils, 

 which occupy so much less space, and a knowledge of which is so 

 much more generally useful. 



I know that there are difficulties in the way of applying these 

 principles, and probably the Council would not consider themselves 

 justified in refusing an offered monograph because it deals with one 

 of the less geologically important classes, but I think they should 

 have regard to the effect which the publication of such monographs 

 may have on intending subscribers. Let us consider the monographs 



