OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 
5 
seen. Such collections, when they are properly arranged, 
become schools of science, where the student may find 
means of instruction to which he could no otherwise have 
had access. The Society, when it regards the progress 
which its cabinets have already made, cannot but indulge 
the anticipation, that ere long the elements of many branches 
of knowledge may be learned within the walls of its Museum; 
that in this repository the Naturalist may form his first 
acquaintance with the works of creation, the Geologist 
trace his science to its Fossils, and the Antiquary his 
erudition to its Coins. 
But, whilst it embraces these general views, the Society feels 
that the service particularly demanded at its hands, is of a 
more limited and local description. A full and exact account 
of the Natural History of the Earth, can only be obtained by 
a division of scientific labour. The County of York is the 
partition of that labour which falls within the Society’s pro¬ 
vince, and to this field of research it especially directs the at¬ 
tention of its members ; a field of sufficient extent and variety 
to excite interest, and at the same time sufficiently bounded 
to admit of being accurately explored. The materials will 
thus, it is hoped, be gradually collected, for a complete philo¬ 
sophical history of Yorkshire; specimens of all the natural 
productions of the County, its native quadrupeds, birds, and 
reptiles, its fishes,* insects, shells, plants, and minerals, will 
* The natural history of Fishes admits of much new illustration. Their 
Osteology might be exhibited with least trouble by boiling the specimens, and 
either reuniting the bones, where loosened, by glue, or arranging them separately 
according to their order. The best method of preserving the natural appearance 
of Fishes, is, to take a plaster cast of half the fish, and then removing the skin, 
to fasten it upon the cast, and varnish it. 
