text:  On the other hand they do harm by becoming the channels of selfish speculation their honorary offices being used as stepping-stones to lucrative ones thereby causing their influential members to please the givers of "situations " and to publish the trash of the impertinently ambitious the _Titmice of the Credulous Societies_! The ultra-ridiculous parade with which they have decked fair science giving her a vest of unmeaning hieroglyphics and thereby exposing her to the finger of scorn is another prominent and unsightly feature of such societies; they do harm by the cliquerie which they generate collecting little knots of little men no individual of whom can stand his own ground but a group of whom by leaning hard together can and do exercise a most pernicious influence; seeking petty gain and class celebrity they exert their joint-stock brains to convert science into pounds shillings and pence; and when they have managed to poke one foot upon the ladder of notoriety use the other to kick furiously at the poor aspirants who attempt to follow them