1881. ] Lditors’ Table. 41 
for its reports, and use their maps in making up its own. Its re- 
lation to the States should be about that of the Bureau of Educa- 
tion to the State school systems. 
—— The adverse influence of city life on the development of 
young naturalists, and the great lack of active scientific societies 
in our larger cities, with the exception of Boston, Philadelphia, 
New York, Washington, Salem, Buffalo, Cincinnati, St, Louis and 
Davenport, is perhaps a subject worth considering. 
The cultivators of natural history imbibe their early love for 
nature during their out-of door, early life in the country. Nearly 
all our leading naturalists were country-bred boys. So flourish- 
ing an organization as the Society of Natural History at Boston, 
counts, we believe, only two active leading members born in that 
city; the membership is made up largely of those brought up in 
more immediate contact with nature. The city naturalists are re- 
inforced from the country. The scientific societies in the cities above 
mentioned are maintained largely by physicians or college profes- 
sors, originally country-bred. If city life were more conducive to 
the growth of natural history studies, why do not such cities as 
Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, New Orleans, Charleston, Savan- 
nah, Pittsburg, Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Rochester, 
Trenton, Indianapolis, and Portland—we select the names much at 
random—maintain flourishing societies? The subscription list of 
this magazine has always consisted mostly of those living in the 
Western and Middle States; it is in the smaller communities, 
many of them college towns or villages, that naturalists develop, 
though we wish we could say that they thrive there. 
In the country native zeal and enthusiasm, the powers of close 
and prolonged observation—communing with nature — arise 
spontaneously on the farm and at the country-seat; transplanted 
into the city, country-bred naturalists can organize and build up_ 
museums and libraries and publish the results of their studies, but 
the original material is drawn from those who live in villages or 
the suburbs of the larger cities. Natural history is now extensively, 
taught in the public schools of our cities, and much effort is thus 
expended to manufacture naturalists, or to induce a respect for sci- 
entific studies, but the efforts are too recent to bear immediate fruit. 
The exodus for two or three summer months into the country of 
families, now so marked a feature of our larger cities, will, we hope, 
in the long run bring the children of the present generation into 
immediate contact with nature and result in a harvest of natural- 
ists, endowed with a simple love of nature and zeal for scientific 
pursuits, and the love of truth and knowledge for its own sake, 
which will instill a wholesome spirit into our national life. 
—— We hope to be able soon to furnish some statistics as to 
the organization of scientific bodies in the United States. We 
look forward to the time when each State will have its Academy 
of Sciences, and it is only a question of enlightened self-interest 
vo: 4 ; 
