14 
YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS^ UNION. 
either ceased to exist or amalgamated with others. It is curious 
that no society has ever survived its secession from the Union 
for more than two or three years. 
As regards one primary object, the thorough and systematic 
investigation of the fauna, flora, and physical features of the 
county of York, it is implied that our scope includes all the 
sciences of which locality is one of the essential elements. 
Sciences like mathematics, which are absolutely independent of 
locality, sciences like astronomy, for which locality means 
nothing more than a suitable medium for observation, are 
excluded from our purview; but on the other hand, not only do 
zoology, botany, and geology come within it, but also such 
sciences as meteorology and certain aspects of archaeology and 
philology always provided that the students of these branches 
of research exist among us. 
Concerning our methods of study, our true function is not 
an educational one, but one of original research at first-hand, 
and the publication of results. The only educational aspect of 
our work is that in which the observer teaches himself by 
his observations, and in which original workers influence each 
other. 
In other words we, and societies like ouis, form the field 
army, the extended skirmish line, in which each individual 
worker is brought into close and intimate contact with the living 
facts of nature. 
We leave the task of training the recruits from whom future 
observers will arise, to the schools, colleges, universities, who 
are better equipped for such a task. It is our business to observe 
facts, closely and in detail, to note their relationships to each 
other, and to place them on record exactly and methodically . 
And particularly, as Sir Michael Foster pointed out to us in 
his address of 1898, it is our function to preserve the field 
naturalist observing the inter-relationships of natural phenomena 
in the open, rather than the technical operator working in the 
laboratory. 
Our publications then, our Transactions and the "Naturalist," 
aie for the publication of the actual facts that we observe, the 
lists with full and detailed notes, and should be storehouses filled 
with the material which future investigators may need for 
comparison and for reference. Articles intended for teaching 
purposes, elementary expositions of known facts, may well be 
left to the numerous magazines which exist for such purposes. 
In another direction our attitude has always been one of 
preservation, not of destruction. We have exerted ourselves for 
the preservation of our fauna and flora, persistently discouraged 
all ruthless destruction and damage of any kind, supported all 
protective legislation, and, on one occasion, in conjunction with 
efforts of Sheffield and the Sheffield Societies, our petition to 
Parliament was instrumental in saving Maltby Common from 
