62 ACCOUNT OF THE GENERAL MEETINGS AND ANNUAL MEETING. 
Bristol. Amongst the most pleasant events connected with the 
Society was the honour of being received in that splendid Natural 
History Museum as the guests of the city. They owed this to the 
desire to encourage the Society's pursuits and to the fact that 
to-day the Bristol Naturalists' Society completed fifty years of its 
existence, for it was founded on Thursday, May 8th, 1862. It 
was a long period of usefulness, and members might be proud of 
its success. The father of the Society was Adolph Leipner, 
still well remembered for his genial enthusiasm and varied know- 
ledge. To his constant care, which only ceased at his death, 
the Society owed much in its early days, and although he has a 
memorial at the Bristol University erected by his fellow members, 
it was a pleasure on that occasion to again testify to their apprecia- 
tion of his labours. With even greater pride thev could look back on 
the excellency of the work done and at the names of those 
connected with the Society. Amongst those active workers no 
longer living who gave of their best, and whose reputation 
extended over the kingdom, were Dr. Herapath : William 
Sanders, who worked out the geological map of the Bristol Coal- 
fields, and so set up the boundaries of our local labours : W. Lant 
Carpenter, the social reformer : Dr. John Beddoe, the authority on 
the races of mankind : and Dr. Hudson, who illustrated much of 
his work in pond life by examples gathered locally. When the 
Bristol University College was started it was natural they should 
be indebted for a proportion of the papers read at their meetings 
to those members who were professed students or teachers of 
science. x\nd here the names were numerous that had become 
celebrated in wider spheres. To mention a few the Society was 
helped by Prof. Sylvanus Thompson on physical experiments ; 
by Prof. W. J. Sollas, on geology ; by Sir William Ramsay, on 
properties of the elements ; by Sir William Tilden, on chemistry ; 
and not the least by Dr. Lloyd Morgan. Yet amidst all these they 
found standing out prominently the splendid work of local amateurs 
in Natural History. They knew the value of such observations 
and experiences, and freely gave them to the Society, and to 
some of them they owed immense encouragement and help. She 
might specially mention, in the order of their works, Mr. Alfred E. 
Hudd, for the local list of Lepidoptera ; Mr. Cedric Bucknall, for 
the list of fungi ; Mr. J. W. White, for list of flowering plants ; 
Mr. H. J. Charbonnier, for mammals and fish, and later for 
diptera ; Mr. C. K. Rudge, of fish ; and Mr. H. C. Playne, of 
birds. With the exception of the last-named gentleman, they 
are all still members, showing that the love of Nature, once culti- 
vated, leaves one only with life. The Society, too, might 
be proud that with the lapse of fifty years so many of the earliest 
members had remained full of interest in its welfare, and some of 
them were with them that evening to help celebrate their jubilee. 
And now as to the permanent benefits to be derived from a 
gathering of naturalists like the present. What could they do 
for their pleasant pursuit — one that had always attracted learned 
