2 
YORKSHIRE .VATURALISTS' UNION. 
Angliae " contained the first systematic accounts of the spiders, 
the beetles, the molluscs, and the fossils of England, and he 
was also the first man to suggest the construction of geological 
maps. 
The first origin of societies for natural history studies is — 
so far as our county is concerned — veiled in obscurity, and 
it is scarcely possible to trace it without much literary search, 
especially amongst the files of local newspapers. 
The first societies founded in the North of England were of 
general scope, covering practically the whole field of human 
knowledge, and they were usually styled Literary and Philo- 
sophical Societies. 
Of these the pre-eminence belongs to Manchester, whose 
Society of this name was founded in 1781, and is still a body 
whose published transactions rank high in value as a medium for 
the publication of original papers. 
Newcastle-on-Tyne followed in 1792, but in our own county 
the movement was much later in development. 
Philosophical Societies were established in 1820 at Leeds, 
in 1822 at York and Hull, in 1823 at Whitby, and in 1827 at 
Scarborough, those at Sheffield, Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield, 
and Middlesbrough being still later in date. 
The work of these Philosophical Societies was in actual 
practice the foundation of Museums, most of which are still in 
existence, and these Societies have in this way contributed their 
share to the advancement of the natural sciences in this county. 
And much more than its share was contributed by one of 
them. For only nine years after its own foundation the York- 
shire Philosophical Society took the leading part in the establish- 
ment of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
the first meeting of which was held in 1831 in our own City and 
County of York. 
The next movement of this kind that affected our county 
resulted in the establishment of societies of specialised instead 
of general scope, and the North of England labours of such 
intellectual giants as William Smith, John Phillips, Adam Sedg- 
wick, William Buckland, to name only such as were connected 
with Yorkshire, and the incorporation in 1826 of the Geo- 
logical Society of London, gave so strong an impetus to the 
study of geology as to lead to the almost simultaneous formation 
of the West Riding Geological and Polytechnic Society in 1837, 
and of the I^Linchester Geological Society in 1838. It is some- 
what surprising that specialised societies should have been 
founded so early, but it may be borne in mind that they were 
originally established not as scientific so much as technical 
societies. 
Both were founded by coalowners, and as the word " Poly- 
technic " in the title of our Yorkshire one shows, they were 
intended for the study of the principles and methods of mining. 
