NATURAL HISTORY. 
1 
operations^ and final effects of many substances taken 
in food or medicine, or exhibited as poisons, are yet 
imperfectly understood, and require a searching- 
investigation. The interest that attaches to such 
inquiries as these, belongs not solely to any class or 
profession. They emphatically belong to man in his 
social state, and it is especially desirable for us as 
Englishmen to become familiar with them ; unless, 
indeed, an ignorance of some of the most interesting 
phenomena which can engage our attention is still 
to be the characteristic mark of the inhabitants of 
this highly civilized land. 
With regard to the manner in which Societies for 
the purpose of investigating the facts of Natural 
History in the several counties of England shall be 
constituted, I apprehend a considerable variation must 
take place according to the progress that has been 
made in this pursuit in the several situations. In 
this county the study has been so much neglected by 
the great mass of the community, that every thing is 
to be done. It is positively necessary that the student 
of, as well as the proficient in, Natural History, 
should have books to which he can refer frequently, 
for without these he cannot advance himself, or 
know what has been done by others. With grief 
and shame be it spoken that we are in this town 
lamentably deficient in this respect. The transactions 
even of the several Societies that exist, and are 
actively employed in the advancement of knowledge, 
are not to be met with in our Public Libraries. 
The Transactions of the Linnaean and the Geological 
