412 president's address. 



1846 there had been no great advance since the days of Linnaeus. 

 For a century observers had been content to collect specimens, 

 to describe specimens, and, following in the steps of the immor- 

 tal White, of Selborne, to note the habits of the creatures with 

 which they were familiar. But the philosophy of biology was 

 untouched. The geographical distribution of families and 

 species, the relationship of the various groups, the modification 

 of various forms of life through isolation, through changed con- 

 ditions, the development of insular faunas, the effects of the 

 struggle for existence, all these great problems were untouched. 

 There had been no systematic observation of the times and 

 paths of migration — that great mystery of bird life, that still 

 unsolved problem of ornithology. The phenomena of the fauna 

 of New Zealand, of the Sandwich Islands, of the Galapagos, 

 and indeed of Australia itself, were scarcely inspected. With 

 Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, propounded in 1859 

 in his " Origin of Species," commenced the epoch of the Biology 

 of to-day. Even the elders among us can scarcely realize the 

 revolution that has been brought about in our studies and 

 modes of thought by that book and all that followed it in 

 rapid succession, from the pens of Huxley and others too 

 numerous to name, whether their theories be accepted or not. 



But one thing this revelation has brought into very clear 

 light, the immense importance and value oi Jield ohservation, of 

 noting the minute variations and modifications, the habits and 

 little circumstances of mineral and vegetable life, even in their 

 humblest forms. Who shall say, when we read the -wonderful 

 illustrations of patient observation by the greatest mind applied 

 to the most insignificant things, ''Vegetable Mould and Earth 

 Worms," or again "The Movements of Plants," that there is 

 not still abundant scope for the eyes and mind of the Field 

 Naturalist? Never let the "Tyneside" dwindle and shrink 

 into a mere club for a pleasant country outing in the season ! 

 Let us emulate our predecessors, and feel it to be our duty to 

 add something, however humble, to the store of human know- 

 ledge in our own department; so may the Club maintain its old 

 traditions, and the future volumes of the Natural History 



