IV THE HANCOCK MUSEUM AND ITS HISTORY 



had a large influence in shaping their tastes in early years ; 

 but the Society of the present day desires to do much more. 

 Already it has instituted series of lectures and addresses the 

 value of which is being every year increasingly recognised ; 

 and one of its chief aims now is to bring the whole of its 

 museum into such a state that the public, as well as the 

 scientific specialist, may derive from it the maximum of 

 benefit. Considerable progress in this direction has indeed 

 been made, but at present it is hampered at every turn by 

 lack of sufficient funds. 



In the public side of its functions, then, there is still much 

 future development to be looked for. In the other chief 

 sphere of work, the investigation of local natural history, the 

 Society has already a record which is probably unequalled 

 by that of any similar body in the country. Almost every 

 section of the local fauna and flora has been worked upon by 

 competent and often distinguished naturalists. The results of 

 their labours are recorded in the Transactions, and in many 

 cases this record is further reinforced by the collections made 

 in the pursuit of their studies and bequeathed by them to the 

 Society. In this way a quite remarkable store of information 

 has been laid up in the course of years. There is probably 

 not another provincial natural history society in Britain that 

 has published such a comprehensive series of authoritative 

 catalogues as those in which the natural history of Northum- 

 berland and Durham and of the adjoining waters of the North 

 Sea is dealt with in this Society's transactions. 



And happily there is no sign of slackening in this direction. 

 On the contrary, at no period in its history has the output 

 been larger or of better quality than during the last two or 

 three years. Our local butterflies and moths, our local two- 

 winged flies, and our local spiders have all been dealt with in 

 the fullest manner in recent issues of the Transactions, not to 

 mention the numerous other papers concerned with work or 

 discoveries of a more detailed nature. Full catalogues of the 

 local Crustacea and beetles — both very large subjects upon 

 which a vast amount of information is already to be found in 



