Abstract
II.
ALTOGETHER, so far as we have been able to ascertain,† the number of existing local societies ‡ which have for their main, or only as a part of their object the culture of Science, that were established in the years between 1781 and 1830, are only 22. We shall see that the increase since 1830 has been enormous, though the large majority of those established during the last forty-three years are of a much more simple kind, so far as organisation is concerned, than those established during the former period, have to a great extent a different object in view or rather accomplish the intellectual improvement of the members after a different fashion, and are, we think, thoroughly characteristic of the scientifically inquisitive and increasingly intelligent period during which they have been established. Not many “Literary and Philosophical Societies“have been established during the latter period, most of them being professedly devoted to study and research in Science, especially in natural history, in all or one of its branches, and a large majority of them being Field Clubs, as those associations are called, the whole or part of whose programme is to investigate the natural history (including .botany, zoology, and geology) of particular districts, in combination sometimes with their archaeology. Indeed the last forty years might well be designated the era of field clubs.
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Local Scientific Societies * . Nature 9, 38–40 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/009038a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009038a0