161
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
OF FIELD CLUBS
AND, IN PARTICULAR,
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
BY FRANK W. JANE, PH.D., D.SC., F.L.S.
[Delivered March 26th, 1949]
WHILE men with interests in natural history and kindred
subjects had associated in groups, to their mutual advan-
tage, at an earlier date, I think we may regard the era of the field
club and local natural history society as the second half of the
nineteenth century. It is a safe assumption that, at the time of its
inception, this form of society served a need—it could scarcely
have become an institution otherwise—but it does not follow that
the need for such societies still remains. In my address I propose
to examine whether, in fact, the field club has outlived its term of
usefulness—a relic of the past which, having become something
of a tradition, we are loath to lose merely for reasons of sentiment
—or whether it is an institution which remains vigorous, abreast
of the times and still serving a useful purpose.
I am particularly anxious to speak in general terms and to try
to look at field clubs as they must appear to the majority of their
members. I have deliberately refrained from consulting their
publications for records of their history, for I want to speak of
field clubs as I know them and of what I have learnt during a fairly
lengthy membership of several such societies and from casual
perusal of their publications during the last twenty-five years.
Since, further we may regard this afternoon and particularly the
period allotted to my presidential address as a time for self-exam-
ination and stock-taking, I shall have a good deal to say about our
own Club specifically, although I do not intend that my remarks
shall be confined to the Essex Field Club : much of what I shall
say of our Club will be applicable to similar institutions.