146 7 he Scottish Naturalist. 



mended that each Society should be represented on the General 

 Committee of the Association only by the President for the time 

 being of the Society, or in his absence from the Association, by a 

 delegate representing him. This recommendation was adopted by 

 the General Committee ; in the fear apparently that, if a larger 

 representation were allowed the Societies, the latter might exercise 

 too great a power at times in the decisions arrived at in the Gene- 

 ral Committee. That body also, at the Southampton meeting, 

 adopted the following resolution : — " That the Council be empozvered 

 to appoi?it a Committee, as recommended in their report adopted by the 

 General Committee on August 23rd, in order to draw up suggestions 

 upon methods of more systematic observation and plans of operation 

 for Local Societies, together with a more uniform ?node of publication 

 of their work. It is reco7?wiended that this Committee should draw 

 up a list of Local Societies which publish their proceedings.'''' 



This special Committee was accordingly appointed, with Mr. 

 Francis Galton as Chairman, and Mr. H. G. Fordham as Secretary, 

 and drew up a Preliminary Report, which was circulated amongst 

 the various Societies, prior to the meeting of the Association in 

 Southport last year. The expressions of opinion received from 

 several Societies, and also by the Conference of Delegates held at 

 Southport to consider this Preliminary Report, have been fully 

 considered by the Committee in drawing up the Final Rej ort ; 

 and the latter report may be regarded as supported by the general 

 approval of the scientific opinion of Great Britain. We shall now 

 proceed to quote the recommendations contained in it, as the Re- 

 port of the Association will probably not come into the hands of a 

 considerable proportion of our readers. 



Space will not permit of our giving a full reprint of the intro- 

 ductory paragraphs of the Report, hence we shall limit ourselves to 

 the following extract from the introduction : — 



" Believing that the British Association is fitted by its constitu- 

 tion and position to become an organising centre of local scientific 

 work, and that through an extension of the system of delegation 

 from Scientific Societies, which has already been recognised in the 

 Rules of the Association, this object may be attained, the Com- 

 mittee venture to make the following proposals, thrown into the 

 form of Rules which, if approved, may be inserted amongst the 

 Rules of the Association, with such amendments in the existing 

 Rules as may be necessary in consequence." 



