244 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
brought about, and yet so secretly that it was only in the last
few years their presence and their work had been even guessed
at, showed that there was nothing in Nature too small to be
worthy of the patient study of scientific men.
Then again there has been another side of our work
which is exceedingly important. At the Club's pleasant meet-
ing at Lady Warwick's seat at Easton, the protection of
insects, mammals, and birds in danger of extermination, and of
rare and common plants, was brought before us. That is a
question upon which public opinion greatly needs education ;
and who could do it better than the various scientific
field societies ? We find that, as surely as any plant
or' insect, or, still more, a larger mammal or bird,
excites the interest of the ignorant, it is almost certain to
be exterminated. It was mentioned that not only was it done
by accident, but even that zealous collectors, in order to raise
the value of their own collections, had systematically exter-
minated rare insects and rare plants in order that others
might not share in their good fortune in possessing specimens.
This is undoubtedly one of those points upon which public
opinion must be brought to bear. Then, again, with regard to
rare birds. Of course, to the really zealous gamekeeper every
bird that was not game was to be exterminated as soon as
possible. It might eat an egg, although, maybe, nobody had
known it to have done so, yet it must be killed for fear it should
commit such a murderous crime. That is the only reason, I
suppose, why anything unknown should be shot at—unless it
is the instinct of the small boy, who threw stones at whatever
he saw, developed and intensified in those old enough to know
better.
Our excursion on to the Estuary of the Colne provided us
with a charming picnic, and the historic satisfaction of knowing
that we enjoyed those oysters which the Romans enjoyed nearly
two thousand years ago—but not the same oysters. [Laughter.]
At that meeting a most interesting paper was brought before
us—that by Dr. Sorby on the preservation of natural history
specimens. We learned that the obscure and little known
chemical, formaldehyde, bids fair to render most valuable
service to the zoologist. The old shrivelled mummy-like object
that results from the use of alcohol gives place to a specimen of
most marvellously natural appearance owing to this most curious
preservative with which modern science has supplied us. The