THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 56.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1857. 
LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
In the spring we called attention to 
the “.steadily-increasing demand for 
Provincial Associations of Naturalists,” 
and we there remarked that “ all such 
clubs or associations should have fixed 
periodic times of meeting ; in the winter 
in-doors, in the summer in the open 
air.” The season for the open-air 
meetings is now past for the present 
year, and no doubt all such Provin- 
cial Natural History Societies are con- 
centrating their energies on the in-door 
meetings, and Secretaries are pondering 
how to entice the members together, 
and how to entertain them when they 
meet. 
Experience shows that it is rather a 
mistake for a jumble of some twenty in- 
dividuals, no two of whom perhaps pur- 
sue precisely the same hobby, to meet 
in Room A of the Lecture Hall or 
Mechanic's Institute with nothing par- 
ticular for the evening’s amusement ; 
the result will be a meeting nearly as 
stiff as a formal dinner-party, without, 
however, that amusing adjunct — the 
dinner; watches are looked at, gaping 
is with difficulty restrained, and every 
one feels relieved when some one makes 
a move to go. 
[Price 1 d. 
We English are very queer people ; 
we always go so seriously to work even 
about our amusements, and not un- 
frequently we make a penance of 
them. 
In another column will be found a 
letter detailing the starting of a small 
Provincial Natural History Society, 
which appears to be going the right 
way to work ; “ the meetings are de- 
voted in winter to the reading of papers, 
a monthly lecture by an ‘adept,’ dis- 
cussions, exhibition of specimens, See.” 
and though it would appear that this 
particular association is principally com- 
posed of juveniles, yet we are told 
that “ there are three or four old natu- 
ralists in the neighbourhood who assist 
by their counsel and influence.” 
Nothing wmuld appear easier, if the 
Secretary of an Association or Club 
he sufficiently energetic and wide-awake, 
than for him to communicate with those 
who are au fait with peculiar branches 
of Natural History, so that each might 
furnish some general discourse on his 
own particular branch of the study, 
and by this means all the other mem- 
bers would be both amused and in- 
structed. Naturally it would not do 
for a member to go too minutely into 
a hobby which no one followed but"' 
himself, but general introductory re- 
