10 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 
does not already do so. But although the co-operation 
of our Literary and Antiquarian friends would have 
smoothed our way, and also tended greatly to their own 
advantage, we have brought no complaint against them; 
on the contrary, we wish them all success in the course 
they have thought best to follow, however much we 
may doubt its wisdom. Fortunately, we are in a fair way 
to accomplish without their aid the end we have all along 
had in view, namely, the establishment of a good educa¬ 
tional museum. I only hope that, should our non-co-operat¬ 
ing friends meet with sufficient encouragement from the 
public in their zealous endeavour to extend their premises, 
they will not forget to thank us for having stirred them up 
to such unwonted exertion. For before Sir Thomas Mon- 
creiffe|had published his views on the subject of museum- 
extension, and our Society had begun to move in the mat¬ 
ter, the necessity for more accommodation does not seem 
to have occupied their attention. We are told, it is true, 
that the Museum-scheme of the Literary and Antiquarian 
Society “is nothing more than that of the late Mr Craigie 
and his able coadjutors, of about twenty years ago, adapted 
to the requirements of the presentday. ” Of what happened 
in Perth twenty years ago I cannot speak, but I know that 
when I came to reside here, some five or six years ago> 
there was no talk whatever about Museum-extension. Sir 
Thomas Moncreiffe was the first who spoke to me on the 
subject, and he very shortly afterwards set forth his ideas 
in a presidential address to this Society; and I have since 
been assured by others long resident in Perth that the 
subject had never been mooted in public until Sir 
Thomas broke silence. Our anonymous assailant goes 
on to make certain comparisons between the Literary 
and Antiquarian Society and the Perthshire Society of 
Natural Science, with the view, of course, of showing how 
greatly the former outstrips the latter. We are told, in 
the first place, that the Literary and Antiquarian Society 
is nearly a century old. That being the case, one may be 
excused for asking what the Society has done ? Before 
this recent stir about a new Museum, it would seem to 
have been as lifeless, dry, and dnsty as its own specimens. 
I must say that I had never heard of it before I came here, 
and I only^discovered that there was such a Society after 
a visit paid to the Museum in George Street. Of the 
natural history collection in that Museum I would rather 
not speak, as anything I should say would hardly be com¬ 
plimentary. I would only remark that, considering the 
lengthened period it has been under the care of a learned 
Society, much more might have been expected in the 
matter of selection, arrangement, and nomenclature 
of specimens. It is stated, however, that “large and 
valuable collections,' 5 the property of the Society, are 
stowed away in out-of-the-way places, for want of space to 
exhibit them, and that, when these are displayed, Perth 
will be provided with a “Provincial Museum in full de¬ 
velopment.” This, I would observe in passing, is no excuse 
for the dilapidated and neglected state of the collection 
which is at present on view in Marshall’s Monument. 
That collection might be correctly described as a confused 
heap of valuable and worthless odds and ends, which, 
even with the addition of the seedy-looking cast-off speci¬ 
mens from the Edinburgh Museum—those hairless, earless, 
and legless “objects,” which were exhihited at “the 
memorable conversazione in January, 1878,”—would not 
form a creditable “General Collection;’’ and would 
certainly be of little or no importance in an educational 
point of view. And I feel quite confident that if “the 
leading men of science at home and abroad” were to 
visit the collection for which their “active support” is 
stated to have been promised, they would agree with every 
word I have said about it. I would much rather have 
avoided making these remarks : the recent ungenerous 
attack upon us, however, has left me no alternative, as 
President of this Society, but to speak out. And now, in 
concluding, 1 shall give our incautious assailant some 
information about this Society which may be useful to him 
on another occasion. In the first place, I have to inform 
him that the Perthshire Society of Natural Science was 
not “ started ” by Dr Buchanan White, but by a few 
working naturalists, who, seeing no signs of vitality in 
the Literary and Antiquarian Society, and tired of waiting 
for the dry bones to move, called a meeting to consider the 
propriety of forming a Natural History Society. Amongst 
others to whom notice was sent was Dr Buchanan White, 
who, when the Society was formed, was elected President. 
In the second place, I may tell him that it is not true that 
this Society has very few specimens. It has several 
thousand valuable specimens illustrative of the fauna and 
flora of Perthshire, and forming more than a nucleus of what 
it is confidently expected will be, in due time, one of the 
most instructive Provincial Museums in the country. 
That the specimens are not more numerous arises, 
simply from the absence, hitherto, of any place to 
contain them. I may add that we have every assurance 
of assistance from local naturalists scattered up and down 
the county, who will gladly send us specimens, as soon as 
our cases are ready to receive them. Although our Society 
is young, it has yet, I venture to say, done more in the com¬ 
paratively few years of its existence than the older Society 
has been able to accomplish since it ceased working “ nearly 
a century ” ago. I had heard of the Perthshire Society 
