I.] ANTECEDENTS. 25
openings for indirect influence. The reason for the abstinence of clergymen from scientific work cannot be that they are too busy, too much home - tied, or cramped in pecuniary means, because other professional men, more busy, more at the call of others, and having less assured revenues, are abundantly represented on all the council lists.
Not caring to trust my unaided recollections, I have examined the council lists of ten scientific societies at or near the three periods, 1850, 1860, 1870. There have been changes in some of the societies, and there are many trifling peculiarities of detail, tedious and unnecessary here to deal with, but the following statement is substantially correct. The ordinary members of council are on a rough general average 20 in number to each of the following societies : (1) Royal ; (2) British Association ; (3) Astronomical ; (4) Chemical ; (5) Geological ; (6) Linneean ; (7) Zoological ; (8) Geographical ; (9 and 10) the two predecessors of the recentlyestablished Anthropological Institute, viz. Ethnological and Anthropological ; (11) Statistical.
