xii Appendix No. 1.
across any of them, and as a matter of fact I believe very few jays have
been caught. [Laughter.]
Dr. Cooke said that when he heard of this subject being brought before
the Club it struck him as an excellent opportunity to nudge the elbows of
the Conservators, and tell them a little of what they as naturalists thought
about the conditions under which the protection of public property was
being pursued, not only in Epping Forest, but in other places, to the
great detriment of those individuals who went puddling in dirty pools to
find something to study under the microscope. It was a complaint which
had been urged in every instance in which any amount of land had been
conserved for the use of the public. In every instance it had been to a
large extent destroyed for naturalists, especially those who devoted
themselves to the study of minute life. The reason of this might perhaps
be traced to ignorance on the part of those who had the control of
these works rather than to any wish to injure the wild animals of minute
dimensions. They did not measure by inches and feet the animals whose
cause they had to advocate. [Hear, hear.] He was not about to propose
that they should go to Parliament for a Bill for the Preservation of Bugs
and Beetles. [Laughter.] But he did propose that they should try to
prevail upon gentlemen who were placed in the position of Mr. Johnston
—he was sorry that he should have been compelled to leave before he
could whisper a word in his ear—he thought they should try to give them
some little information about the work that was being done. To come
down to detail. The organisms that he specially advocated were those
which were as small, or smaller than a pin's head. These were the
organisms that were most injured by the usual plans for the preservation
of land for public purposes. They were also the class of organisms
which were now exciting the greatest amount of interest among naturalists,
who were seeking to solve the problem of life very much through the
study of the life-history of the lower and more minute forms. And hence
every minute organism which was found in a puddle might teach a great
lesson [hear, hear], and a lesson which we could not learn by staring
at a lion or rhinoceros. There were in London, as well as in Essex,
a large number of people associated together in societies for the study of
forms of microscopical life. He had the honour to be the president
of one society of 200 members, and the vice-president of another which
contained over 600 members ; and the general feeling amongst those,
nearly a thousand individuals, was that every year they had to go further
from London in search of the organisms they studied. The excursion
parties of the Quekett Club had found it no longer of any use to go to
Wimbledon Common in quest of minute life—the place had been given
over to the tender mercies of the volunteer and drain-maker. Hampstead
Heath was another instance—and a very good instance—of a heath which
had been preserved for the benefit of the Cockney ; but it had been now
nearly destroyed for the purposes for which the London naturalist
particularly desired it to be preserved, Then Battersea was a third