THE LINNEAN SOCIETY 407 
I rather like [he writes on June 2] to keep the Geog. Soc. 
as a sort of seton upon science : it draws all odium for 
scientific lion-hunting, toadying and tuft -hunting away 
from the Linnean, Koyal and Geological— only that the 
latter are too fond of following in wake ! For my part I 
eschew them all now, and intend to keep them and their 
society at arm's length. 
And somewhat later, rejoicing that he was not on the 
Committee of the Geological, he remarks to Huxley : * I am 
quite accustomed to seeing things done *' more Geologico " — 
in fact the Geolog. Soc. and its attributes have been worth 
their price to me in the valuable introduction it has proved to 
Helter Skelter science and business.' 
Through the earher years of this decade Hooker was specially 
concerned with the reorganisation of the Linnean Society. 
His object was to see the Linnean take the same position with 
regard to Natural History as the Eoyal Society with Physics. 
He had been elected a Fellow in 1842, and was chosen a member 
of the Council in 1853, serving in this capacity for twenty-four 
years, during fifteen of these as Vice-President. Once on the 
Council, he endeavoured to carry out much-needed reforms. 
The famous Linnean collection had fallen into a bad state ; 
Hooker's offer to help rearrange it the year before, when he and 
Thomson were sometimes meeting at the Linnean, had not 
been taken up : doubtless owing to Kobert Brown's opposition 
to any change. The printed reports of proceedings presented 
their subjects in confused order, so that speciaHsts had difficulty 
in finding what they wanted. It was most desirable to separate 
the reports, according to their kind and weight, into Proceedings 
and Transactions (a reform in which the Linnean was antici- 
pated by the Koyal Society, thanks to the efforts of * the 
small band of us yclept the Philosophical club '), and to divide 
botany from zoology. Experience in other countries had 
shown this to be absolutely essential, for the sake of the 
botanical and zoological public ahke, who were now forced to 
buy reports in which they had no interest ; and for the sake 
of simphfying the already complex bibhography. Moreover, 
* though you and I,' he assures Huxley, * as joint editors may 
