228 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



In 1849 ordinary membership had mounted up to 70. 

 In 1872, by which time a main object, irrespective of 

 other considerations, seems to have been to multiply 

 numbers so as to secure a larger income to meet the 

 cost of more voluminous and more copiously illustrated 

 Proceedings, we find 233 ordinary and 7 honoraiy membei's. 

 In pursuance — I cannot avoid saying in reckless pursu- 

 ance — of the same policy, the Club had elected by 1890 

 so many candidates, without even the nominal safeguard 

 of our present election forms, that members had increased 

 to 391 full and 22 honorary and associate, which appears 

 to have been the numerical high water-mark of the Club. 

 At the present time our roll shows 318 ordinary and 16 

 honorary and associate members, which will be increased, 

 if you will, bj^ the election of several ordinary members 

 to-day. In the retrospective as well as in a present 

 estimate of the work already accomplished and now 

 being done by our own Club, it is well to remember 

 that large membership does not necessarily mean much 

 real work — in fact there is an axiom " the larger a club 

 the less work." In glancing over the Addresses of my 

 predecessors, I notice that from time to time a warning- 

 voice is sounded in that direction, one of which, as typical 

 of all, will be sufficient for quotation. The President of 

 1863 said, " We have received a large accession of new 

 members, and were I to advance any suggestion for our 

 future guidance it would be that we should well consider 

 the judiciousness of unlimitedly increasing our numbers. 

 It seems to me to be more consonant with the original 

 intention, and more conducive to the future interests of 

 the Club, that it should consist rather of a few ardent 

 lovers and keen observers of nature, than a multitude 

 having no special object in view, and no particular pursuit 

 to follow in our field meetings." Of course the splendid 

 work done by the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club for 

 very many years, the value and interest of its Proceedings, 

 and the high attainments and ability of so many of its 



