REV. WM. FOWLER, M.A. : PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 1 47 



differ from the type, and are as instructive as the tj-pes 

 themselves. Laboratory work and field work should surely go 

 hand in hand, not as separate studies, but as two sides of the 

 same subject. They should be helps to one another, and not 

 rivals. The home-student should not say to the field-student, 

 I have no need of you ; nor the field student to the home- 

 student, I have no need of you, each can and ought, to learn 

 from the other, as workers in a common cause. 



Four g'reat advantages then, resulting" from membership in 

 our Union are, interchange of opinions, widening" of ideas, 

 promotion of friendship, and combination in field-work, which 

 (owing" to the larg"e area over which it extends, and the number 

 who take part in it) is of special benefit to students of nature. 

 In addition, members receive copies ol the Transactions and 

 of the ' Naturalist,' and have access to the library, which consists 

 of books, maps and pamphlets bearing" upon the natural 

 histor}' of Yorkshire. JNIany, I know, have no liking" for such 

 subjects as are to us most interesting", and some who have, 

 prefer to work alone rather than in company ; but others of us, 

 speaking" from an experience of 25 years, know that throug"h 

 encourag'ement and help given by our Union, several have 

 begun the study of some branch of natural histor}', and in many 

 cases, have made valuable additions to our knowledge of facts, 

 as well as suggested explanations of them, which, if not always 

 convincing, at least stimulate further enquiry, and are thus 

 indirectly useful. 



In conclusion, I must thank the officers, the executive, and 

 the members of the Union generally, for their unvarying 

 kindness to me for now a quarter of a century. Between my first 

 presidency, and this my last, fourteen presidents of far higher 

 scientific attainments than any I can lay claim to have occupied 

 the post, but none of them have been more desirous than myself of 

 seeing the Union prosper, and continue its investigation of the 

 natural history of Yorkshire, which, if not the count}' in which I 

 was born^ is one in which I have spent nearly all my life, and in 

 which, consequeiitly I cannot fail to be interested. In taking 

 lea\e of the presidenc}', I do not take leave of the Union, nor of 

 my friends and fellow-workers, whom I hope to meet more 

 frequently next year, than, from untoward circumstances, I 

 have been able to do this. Parochial engagements are often of 

 such a nature, that they clash with the fixtures of the Union, 

 and render me unable, however willing I may be, to be present. 

 Of this, however, you may rest assured, that when 1 am absent 

 in body, I am often with you in spirit, hoping, if it rains that it 

 will soon be fine, and wishing you well in your investigations. 

 My successors in the coming flying times, may be able to keep 

 two distant engagements on the same day, but, at present, I 



