Abstract
THE diffusion of scientific interests in the world, as indicated by the numbers and distribution of natural history societies, has been studied by Enrique Sparn (Bol. Aoad. Nac. dene. Buenos Aires, vol. 31, p. 171; 1931). Confining the inquiry to the larger societies, with a membership of 500 or more, the author finds that the world total amounts to 116 societies, of which 52 are devoted to natural history in general, 34 to zoology, 14 to botany, and 16 to geology. From a geographical point of view, natural history interests would appear to be tolerably restricted, for when we have mentioned 83 European societies with a total membership of 132,182 individuals, and 30 American societies with a membership of 160,947, there remain only 2 societies in Asia with a membership of 1938,and one in Australia with a membership of 550. In this short note it is impossible to analyse all the naturalist sciences, but since zoology is by far the most populous, it may be taken as illustrating the general trend. Of the 34 great zoological societies in the world, 13 concern themselves with zoology in general (40,178 members), the others are specialist: 10 societies of entomology, with 10,165 members; 7 of ornithology, 10,672; 2 of mammalogy, 1775; one of ichthyology, 650; and one of ecology, 600.
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The World's Natural History Societies. Nature 129, 608–609 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129608c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129608c0