Quote: "...thirteen mined souls, in London got together at the Freemasons Tavern at Long Acre. in Covent Garden, to form a dining club to be called the Geological Society....The price of the meal was set at a deliberately hefty fifteen shillings to discourage those whose qualifications were merely cerebral."
Question: Why would they try to discourage people for joining the Society?
Comment: What I didn't really understand was how come the society would discourage people, I mean what if there weren't everyone didn't qualify then they would have no members in the Society.