Science in Hastings

Abstract

I HAVE just seen your comments (vol. xiii.p. 217) on a letter that appeared a few weeks ago in the Hastings and St. Leonards News, and at once write to vindicate the honour of Hastings. We have a Philosophical and Historical Society, a Literary and Scientific Institution, and a Mechanics' Institution, besides two or three others of a more private character. A museum we certainly do not possess, and if it should prove like most local? museums, a collection of “et cetera,” trying to rival the British Museum in the extent of its field of research, and an overturned workbox as to arrangement, the longer we are without it the better. Far be it from me to say that the people of Hastings and St. Leonards display as much interest as they ought in the pursuit of science, but still they are not so bad as you make out. The Philosophical Society, in which I am chiefly interested, and of which I enclose last year's report, has done much good work in bygone days, but owing to a variety of circumstances it is not at present quite so flourishing as we could wish. However, I am glad to say that at the last Council meeting it was decided to publish a pamphlet containing a list of the specimens in the various branches of Natural Hisiory to be found about the neighbourhood, both on the land and in the sea. This will be but a commencement, and will be distributed among the inhabitants and visitors with a request that a notice of any alterations or additions should be sent to the Society for future publication. Thus it is hoped that fresh interest will be awakened.