PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 

 TO THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS 

 UNION, 



Delivered at Wakefield ^ igoi. 



REV. WILLIAM FOWLER, M.A., 



President of the Yorkshire Natiirnlists Union, iqoi. 



Twenty-five years ag^o I had the honour of being- elected, 

 not only president, but first president of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union ; and in m}' inaug^ural address I endeavoured 

 to set forth the advantag-es which are the result of the study of 

 natural history, including- in that term, gfeolog-y, which relates to 

 the structure of the earth, botany, to its veg-etable, and zoolog-y, 

 to its animal life. We saw then, I think, that the investigation 

 of nature, in any of these departments, was conduf^ive to bodily 

 health (as ensuring- fresh air and pleasurable exercise) ; was 

 productive of friendly intercourse (as leading- us to confer with 

 one another) ; was excellent mental training- (as necessitating- 

 accurate observation of facts and sound reasoning- upon them) ; 

 was full of interest (as enabling" us to understand better the 

 wonderful objects we see around us) ; was of g-reat advantage 

 (as helping- us to add to the stock of knowledg-e, accumulated 

 by those who have g-one before us, in the same paths). During 

 the twenty-five years, which have passed since that time, much 

 valuable work has been done by members of the Union in each 

 of the above-named subjects, as reference to its Transactions 

 and to articles in its org-an, 'The Naturalist,' will prove. Not 

 only have larg-e numbers of new records been made for the 

 county, but by means of them much lig^ht has been thrown on 

 the constitution of ig-neous and other rocks, on the occurrence of 

 fossils, on the distribution of plant and animal life. Lists ot 

 fossils, plants, insects, and so forth, do not in themselves form 

 very entertaining- reading-, but they are full o'i interest to those 

 who enquire why a certain species occurs in this place, and 

 another in that ; and try at least to come to some conclusion, 



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