LTNNEAK SOCIETY OF LONDOIT. ' Ixxvii 



Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry), often associated with Na- 

 tural History, and still in some Transactions and Journals even 

 included in the general title of Naturkunde, Naturwissenschaften, 

 or Sciences Naturelles, have in other cases been quite separated. 

 Geology is the next to be cut off, and Zoology has parted with 

 Botany; and lastly, independently of the numerous Associations for 

 the practical application of natural science, we have seen separate 

 Societies, with their Transactions, as well as Journals for Orni- 

 thology, Ichthyology, Entomology, Palaeontology, Histology, &c. 

 Men have thus been encouraged to restrict their observations to 

 very limited classes of beings, and to generalize upon the very in- 

 efficient data thus obtained, with the same inconveniences which 

 resulted at the outset from generalizing upon observations made 

 in a limited territorial area. Eeaetion, and an attempt at recon- 

 centration, have in some cases been the consequence, and it is now 

 a great practical question, which has agitated many academical 

 bodies, and which deserves our own serious consideration, how far 

 we should connect or sepai-ate them in our meetings and pub- 

 lications. 



I have said that most of the great scientific bodies have by this 

 time more or less completely adopted the separation of Mathe- 

 matical and Physical Science from Natural History proper, but 

 not all. I have had before me series of from twenty to sixty 

 bulky quartos, in which they are more or less mixed from first to 

 last. Taking the two hundred odd ponderous volumes of Italian, 

 Spanish, and Portuguese Transactions, I do not think that there 

 are, on an average, two Natural- History papers per volume — -Art, 

 History, and Literature predominating even over Mathematics 

 and Physics ; and at some of our meetings we have seen whole 

 piles without anything to interest us. This amalgamation is often 

 justified on the plea that in the smaller towns, or even in capitals 

 where science is not yet cultivated, the number of members and the 

 material support are not sufficient for issuing separate publications. 

 But in such cases it would surely be for their interest to confine 

 themselves to subjects of local interest which do receive that suf- 

 ficient support, and that men who rise above these to general 

 science, should send all contributions which ought to come under 

 the notice of distant workers in the same branch, to Societies or 

 Journals generally accessible to their fellow-labourers. It would 

 appear to be a mistaken notion we many of us entertain, that by 

 having our name appear as contributing to as great a variety of 

 publications as possible we really promote our reputation. An 



