46 
PROCEEDINGS OP THE DERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OP NATURAL SCIENCE. 
communications. In almost all Societies the active labourers— 
those who carry on the actual work of the Society—bear compara¬ 
tively a small proportion to the total number of members, and 
our Society does not present any exception to this rule. In fact, 
if the truth must be made known,—and on an occasion like this 
it is very desirable that we should consider our position in all its 
aspects,—the workers in our Society are at present a smaller 
proportion than should be the case. In some periods of the past 
this was not so; and I trust, and in fact have little doubt, that in 
the future it will not be so either. But in the meantime it is 
the case, and we ought to discover, if possible, “the reason 
why.” One or two apparent causes occur to me, and of these 
the chief seems to be the nature or style of “ papers ” into which 
we have drifted of late years. I do not for a moment wish to 
insinuate that these papers are in any way unworthy of the 
Society. On the contrary, many of them have been most excel¬ 
lent, and very highly appreciated; but this very excellence has 
possibly been the cause why we have not had more of them, and 
by more numerous authors. There are comparatively a number 
of members, qualified in everyway to favour us with communica¬ 
tions, who never, or very rarely, make an appearance on our 
rostrum, and I think it is only diffidence on their part which 
prevents them coming forward. This is not as it should be. We 
are all students,—we have all a great, a very great, deal to learn, 
—and will have to the end of the chapter; and any note or com¬ 
munication, however trivial or however familiar it may be to its 
author, is almost certain to possess some value or some novelty 
to others. We all appreciate carefully-written and elaborate 
papers, and feel grateful to the writers, who, at the cost of much 
time and trouble, come forward to instruct us. Such papers 
form, as it were, the dressed stones and carved work of our edi¬ 
fice; but after all it is to the smaller notes and communications 
that we must look for the chief material of the walls, and for the 
lime which will bind all into one substantial whole. Members, 
therefore, cannot be too strongly impressed with the fact, that 
while what may be called lectures and elaborate papers will 
always be most welcome, short notes, and plenty of them, 
are what are equally desirable at the present time. 
Another point in relation to “ papers ” is this. From the 
nature of the membership of the Society, we are devoted as a 
body to no one particular branch of natural science, and many 
of our members, though interested in natural history generally, 
are not students of any particular department. On this ac¬ 
count, perhaps, I think there has been a tendency in the papers 
to deal with scientific matters in a broad and popular manner 
rather than to enter into special and original details or obser¬ 
vations. Authors doubtless feel afraid of being unintelligible or 
wearisome to the majority of their hearers, and have preferred 
to write for the many rather than for the few. But while the 
one class of papers are all that can be desired to carry into 
effect one of the objects of the Society, namely, “the promotion 
of the study of Natural Science,” yet, if we are to do our work 
effectually,—if we are to take a place, however humble, amongst 
the Scientific Societies of the country,—we must not neglect the 
other class of communications. We do not look for long and 
learned papers full of original research. These will naturally 
be sent to wealthier and more central Societies than ours, but 
what we ought to ask for aud to get are little notes bearing on 
the natural history of the district, relating to the habits, 
characters, distribution, or occurrence of Perthshire animals 
and plants. In giving these an author must put entirely aside 
the idea that few (if any) members are particularly interested in 
the subject of his note:—he must keep in min d that everything 
has a beginning, and that possibly the very communication of a 
note that he may consider uninteresting to his hearers may be 
the means of attracting some of them to the field in which he is 
working, and thus furnish him with a fellow-labourer. It must 
also be remembered, that if the publication of our “Proceedings” 
is continued, his note will be preserved for the benefit of other 
workers, present or future, and that as out of little grains of 
sand great rocks are built up, so little notes and observations go 
to form the grouudwork of broad generalizations and theories. 
Connected with “papers” is another matter to which I would 
like to allude, and which has an important bearing on the work 
of the Society. There has been too much of a tendency on the 
part of members of late years to look upon the meetings as 
lectures to which they come as mere auditors, not expected to 
take any active part in the proceedings. This is far from what 
should be the character of the meetings. They ought to par¬ 
take more of the nature of conversaziones than of lectures, and 
there should be an endeavour on the part of every member to 
get up and take part in discussions on the papers read. In a 
word, what we require is more life in the meetings; and if some 
of the members will only set the example, there is little doubt 
but that what is now the exception will soon become the rule. 
Again, there is yet another matter which will make our meet¬ 
ings both more useful and more interesting, and that is the 
exliibition of specimens. Having now got a proper place for a 
Museum, there will, I hope, be a constant supply of specimens 
to exhibit and discuss at tlie meetings; but, in addition to this, 
members should bring specimens of their own. These may be 
brought for one of two or more reasons. They may be brought 
because being likely to be of interest to some of the other mem¬ 
bers, or because they prove the occurrence of the object in a 
locality in which it was not previously known to occur, and 
which it is desirable should be recorded. But, in addition to 
tuese reasons, specimens may be brought because the bringer 
desires to learn something about them; and though possibly he 
might obtain the wished-for information by consulting another 
member privately, it ought to be kept in mind that what he 
himself desires to know may also be desired by others, and, 
therefore, he should ask for the information publicly. 
In addition to the subjects of the reading of communications 
and the exhibition of specimens, there is another point which 
: may be alluded to, and which it is very desirable should be 
i clearly understood. Those to whom from time to time the 
Society has entrusted the management of its affairs have always 
been desirous that all classes of their fellow-citizens should par- 
; ticipate in the advantages which the Society offers to its 
- members, and with that in view formed a new class of member¬ 
ship to enable those, to whom even the small annual subscrip¬ 
tion of 5s might be an obstacle, to become members. There was 
