THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION, ITS ORIGIN, 

 CONSTITUTION, AND MODES OF WORKING, 

 WITH REMAEKS UPON THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



By H. Bendelack HEWETSO]sr, M.R.C.S., Leeds. 



Theoughout every historically recorded era in the progressive develop- 

 ment of nations, there has always been, at one time or another, some 

 special mark of the intellectual standing of the period. For instance, 

 one nation would be notable for its arms, another for its arts or its 

 philosophy, and so on ; but it would seem that it has remained for 

 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of the Christian era to be 

 peculiar among all other times for the universal study of natural 

 history and natural science. The application of the knowledge so 

 gained has resulted in being the chief motive power of the nation. 

 Another effect is the formation of a school of Natural History painting, 

 which by far transcends any previous efforts at recording in faithful 

 imagery organic and inorganic forms. From what other age could 

 we obtain botanical illustrations approaching those produced by Curtis 

 or Sowerby, or the illustrations of shells in Reeves' ConcJiologia Iconica % 

 What other period has produced an ornithological woodcutter equal 

 to Bewick, or the last perfection of bird painting reached by Mr. 

 and Mrs. John Gould, who have by elaborate labour succeeded in 

 transcribing the iris of the humming bird or the dazzling beauty of 

 the king bird of Paradise ? Again, the magnificent bird-painting by 

 Keulmanns in his illustrations of that monumental work — just about 

 completed — Dresser's Birds of Europe. The painting of exotic butter- 

 flies and the eggs of British birds by the late W. C. Hewitson are 

 simply beyond all praise, as are also the colored drawings of Agates, 

 by the greatest of art critics, and a deep student of nature — John 

 Buskin. 



What other age in the history of the world has produced such a 

 wonderful series of naturalists as Baron Cuvier, Linn^us, Darwin, 

 Owen, or Huxley, besides many more of vast intellectual power, 

 although not gifted with that inborn grant — original thought 1 



The wave of investigation into the hitherto hidden regions of 

 natural history and natural law, has been swelling vaster and vaster 

 of late years. Hardly a town of any importance exists without its 

 natural history society, or its field club. Natural history is also 

 taught in schools as a matter of daily routine, and even young ladies 

 are scarcely looked upon as "finished," unless they have attended 

 and obtained certificates in Physiology, upon a course of lectures by 

 N, S., Vol. VI.— Apk., 1881. 



