Abstract
THE Berlin Geographical Society celebrated in characteristic German fashion the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation last week. Berlin, as our readers know, is not the only German city possessing a geographical society; indeed it has two. In Hamburg and Bremen are two excellent societies of this class, while the Continent, generally, is overrun with them. Russia has about a dozen, Belgium has at least two, Brussels and Antwerp, Holland one if not more, France at least half a dozen, Italy two or three, and the Scandinavian countries their own share. We do not consider it a disadvantage that in maritime countries there should be more than one geographical society, and we think it might be beneficial if even in our own country associations corresponding to the French societies of commercial geography were established in our chief ports, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, Leith, Dundee. These might be branches of or affiliated to the London society, and might catch much that never reaches the latter. They might, moreover, do considerable service in encouraging the merchant service to obtain and bring home information that would be useful to science, and might, by means of lectures and otherwise, foster a scientific spirit among our commercial population. Much good is done in this way, we believe, by the societies of Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons. Two new geographical societies have, we learn, been established in France, at Metz and Montpellier. The French are evidently doing their best to remove the reproach so frequently cast at them, of being more ignorant of geography than even the English.
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GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES . Nature 18, 45–46 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018045b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018045b0