252 Report of the Meetings for 1895. 



carried out their field investigations as a Club, they could 

 not prosper and continue. He was quite sure the sympatliies 

 of a very considerable number of those who were most 

 attached to the Club were at the present moment somewhat 

 cooled towards it. They had not the same inducement as 

 they once had to attend the meetings. In 1869, when he 

 joined the Club, and for some years afterwards, it was not 

 unusual to see ten or a dozen vasculums amongst them ; but 

 now they never saw one, except when a gentleman brought 

 some flowers from his own garden to show the members. 

 (Laughter.) He thought that indicated an unwholesome and 

 unhealthy state of matters. He was sure that in such a 

 large membership there was a great deal of latent power 

 and latent force which might be utilized. 



He thought the suggestion regarding the formation of 

 sections was a very wise and very workable one. It might 

 be left to future consideration the precise form any re- 

 organization should take, but he thought a great majority of 

 the members of the Club would be ready to admit that some 

 kind of re-organization was necessary and desirable. That 

 being so, they would not refuse to accept a motion, which 

 he proposed to conclude by moving. He did so entirely in 

 the interest of the Club, believing that it had done a great 

 work in the past ; that it was not only the most ancient 

 of all the Field Clubs in the kingdom, but that it had done 

 a work second to none, and probably there was no Club in 

 the kingdom that could show Transactions of equal local 

 value to those in their possession. He did not make the 

 motion in a criticising or unsympathetic spirit, but he did 

 so in order to supplement the organization to meet the 

 change of circumstances. These changed circumstances had 

 mainly arisen from the increased membership of the Club, 

 and in fact every large institution, like most old people, 

 somewhat lost their pristine enthusiasm and their pristine 

 vigour, although they had one remarkable exception to that 

 before them. (Loud applause.) 



He proposed that a Committee be appointed to consider 

 the suggestions contained in the President's address, and to 

 report to next general meeting of the Club. He would 

 leave the hands of the Committee perfectly free ; they might 

 come to the conclusion that no re-organization was necessary, 



