PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. CXXX1X 
character, that one is called upon to attend during the winter months. 
This, however, instead of being a matter of regret, should be one of 
congratulation, seeing that some of these organisations are the direct 
offspring of our Society, and that they make use of our buildings, and 
thus widen the sphere of our usefulness. It seems to me that far 
from any jealousy among such societies, there should be, and I trust 
always will be, a feeling of cordial fellowship among them, and a 
desire to help each other in their several efforts to raise the intellec¬ 
tual standard of the community. Such, then, are two of the causes 
which militate against our meetings. Now let us see if there is no 
way in which we can increase their popularity. It seems to me that 
there are three ways in which we might do this. In the first place, 
we should do our utmost to persuade some of our members who 
have not yet contributed any papers or notes to do so. I have no 
doubt, for instance, that several of our country members could 
send most interesting communications resulting from original obser¬ 
vation. Even though they do not know the scientific name or the 
systematic position of any particular animal or plant, let them tell us 
something they have observed about its life-history, its haunts, or its 
habits. Gilbert White and Richard Jefferies were not systematic 
naturalists in the modern sense of the term, and yet what truer de¬ 
scriptions have we, both of the outward appearances and the inner 
workings of nature, than in the “Natural History of Selborne,” or 
“The Gamekeeper at Home.” But there is another class of our 
members to whom we might surely look for some assistance in this 
direction, namely our lady members. I believe I was the first to 
introduce the innovation of admitting ladies to our membership, and 
I certainly should feel that I had not occupied the Presidential Chair 
in vain, if I could persuade some of them to give us the results of 
their observation or research in the form of papers, however short. 
In this connection, my experience at Cardiff last summer comes 
to my aid again, for there the most interesting paper I heard in the 
Geographical Section was one by Mrs. Bishop, better known as Miss 
Bird. 
Assuming, then, that we have got more variety in our Syllabus, 
it is certainly desirable to have more discussion on the papers read. 
In proof of this, I need only refer to our last monthly meeting, when 
Mr. Barclay’s paper was criticised on the botanical, the chemical, and 
the practical side, by gentlemen competent to speak on these matters, 
and much interesting light was thrown on the subject. 
The third and last practical suggestion I would make, with a view 
to popularising our meetings, is that additional means should be taken 
to inform the members of the subject and date of each meeting. No 
doubt the Syllabus card oitght to be sufficient for this purpose, but, 
unfortunately, memories, like everything else mortal, are frail. In 
this matter we might with advantage take a hint from our friends 
of the Students’ Union, and issue a card intimating each meeting. 
Of course the obvious objection to such a practice is the extra labour 
which it would involve on our already hard-worked Secretary. 
But our winter meetings do not by any means exhaust the 
functions of our Society. I think we are apt to forget the very im- 
