PREFACE. 



The ' Zoologist ■ has pursued the even tenor of its way to the ter- 

 mination of a fifth year. 



It is peculiarly gratifying to mark the subsidence of all opposition 

 to its onward course. I am well aware that at the period of its com- 

 mencement it was regarded by some as interfering with prescriptive 

 technicalities and chartered obscurities. These sentiments, if still 

 entertained, are kept in abeyance, and all public lamentations about 

 the dissemination of Natural-History knowledge have long ceased. 

 Conservative dulness finds other channels ; and a doubt has arisen in 

 the public mind whether the unintelligible, either in physics or meta- 

 physics, be really the most valuable. 



In my last address I made use of observations respecting the Ray 

 Society, which I regret to find have been disagreeable to some of its 

 members. It should be recollected that this society stands forth as 

 the great Natural-History association of the country. Were it a pri- 

 vate speculation I might be justified in passing it by, but it invites 

 notice, — it makes a direct demand on our attention : it would be most 

 uncourteous to preserve silence, most uncandid to conceal my real 

 opinion of its proceedings. It must not be for a moment lost sight 

 of, that a vast number, perhaps the majority of its members, became 

 such from a perusal of the advertisements gratuitously circulated with 

 the ' Zoologist,' a mode of addressing the lovers of Natural History 

 which certainly is unequalled. My own recommendations, moreover, 

 whether availing or otherwise I will not presume to say, were ardent 



