144 PKIOSIDEXTS ADDRESS. 



of wide repute. Tliere was a boy whose pockets were always 

 full of spiders, but his name was Pickanl-Canibriilg'e. Then 

 there was Wood, and liis father's name is famous also. 



A friend of my own had a weird way of st()pj)in^ 

 suddenly and picking a chrysalis out of a wjdl, or an on^his out 

 of a coppice, but his father again had crammed his house with 

 specimens from India. All these boys, in fact, had help at 

 home. Of course, I w ent tlirough the collcctinfj stnge. I even 

 embarked on animal anatomy, and beside my sister's 

 garden was a plot known and avoided as " Willie's Cemetery." 

 But it never led to anything permanent ; games and fishing 

 occupied my leisure hours year after year. It was the same 

 at Oxford. And yet, I always had a secret hankering for 

 higher things. 



Shortly before coming to (xuernsey I actually founded a 

 Field Society and a, Museum winch still exist and flourish, but 

 then they did not expect me to make the s])eeches. They 

 were content if I organised the expeditions, and provided the 

 tea. When I came to Guernsey part of my e([uipment Avas a 

 compound — and ten pound — microscope, and one of my first 

 acts was to join your learned Society, to which 1 have 

 subscribed ever since. 



About eighteen years ago I came to one of your meetings 

 and asked a question, I think about a bee, which revealed such 

 depths of ignorance as evidently were seldom displayed on 

 such occasions. 1 particularly remember the kindly chuckles 

 of a gentleman sitting near me at the time, whom I now know 

 as Mr. De La Mare. It was the first time I had ever attended 

 a meeting of scientists, and I went home a Aviser man. 



For sixteen years your meetings knew me not, until 

 Dr. Aikman swooped down on me and inveigled me, Avith talk 

 of public duty, into accepting youi- offer — made in happy 

 forgetfulness of my question about the bee — to reappear as 

 Chairman. 



Why have I iniiicted this confession upon you, ladies 

 and gentlemen ? Because I consider myself typical of good 

 material Avasted in thousands every year by the Public Schools. 

 Here am I totally unable to contribute the smallest particle of 

 original Avork to Aour Tra)isact'wns^ afraid to open my mouth 

 lest I put my foot in it. What is the moral of the tale '? 



The question Avhich naturally occurs to my mind is, 

 '•Why are not moie boys naturalists ?" and I amused myself 

 the other day by trying to discover whether the boys 

 themselves could give an answer. I set that (Question as an 

 essay to the sixth form, and I have a resume of their replies. 



