102
THE COMING OF AGE OF
stimulation of original local work in various branches of natural
science Such lectures and addresses, although in many cases
delivered by acknowledged masters of the various subjects, could
not very well be published in extenso by the Club, and so
the records of this branch of our work do not figure very
prominently in our printed pages. Nevertheless this work is in
its way both useful and important, provided it is kept in abeyance
as a secondary branch and not allowed, as is the case with many
local societies, to become the main object of the Club's existence.
A long course of experience in connection with the working of
local societies throughout the United Kingdom, derived from my
association with the Corresponding Societies' Committee of the
British Association, has served to convince me that the work of
a local society is weak in proportion as it has to depend upon
popular lectures for keeping it alive.
Quite early in the history of the Club educational work of
this kind was undertaken and the system of popular lecturing
inaugurated by a lecture by Mr. Harting on Nov. 10th, 1880,
on Forest Animals (Trans. I., 74). The second lecture in this
series on January 4th, 1881, was a memorable one, as Mr. Alfred
Russel Wallace, our distinguished Hon. Member, gave an
abstract of the main conclusions at which he had arrived con-
cerning insular faunas and floras (Proc. I., lxvi.), the subject of
the great work, afterwards published under the title Island
Life. Again, on October 2nd, 1886 (Proc. IV., cxcii.) my
friend, Mr. Wallace, favoured the Club with an advanced
chapter of his work on Darwinism, then in course of prepara-
tion. But time will not admit of a detailed list of lectures,
addresses and demonstrations given before the Club at head-
quarters or elsewhere. I need only justify this branch of our
work by reminding you that we have had the privilege of hearing
in this capacity Sir Richard Owen, Gen. Pitt-Rivers, Sir Wm.
Flower, Dr. Henry Woodward, Mr. F. W. Rudler, Prof. E. B.
Poulton (whose recent appearance on February 22nd, 1902, was
his third lecture to the Club), Mr. Arthur Lister, Dr. M. C.
Cooke, Mr. G. Massee, Mr. D.J. Cunningham ("Transformations
of Marine Animals," Essex Naturalist VII., 182), Prof. Charles
Stewart, Mr. Frederick Enock and others. Perhaps also the
address on "The Mechanical Questions involved in the Flight of
Birds," delivered by Lord Rayleigh on the occasion of the
Club's visit to Terling Place in 1885 (Proc. IV., clxxiii.) may be