126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



appointed to consider the matter fully and to report the result to the 

 Society, and submitted an amendment to that effect. 



Mr. W. T. Webster thought that some of the older Fellows of the 

 Society should also be appointed to serve on this Committee. 



Dr. Price-Jones seconded Mr. Gordon's proposal that the matter 

 should be referred to a committee appointed for the purpose. 



The Chairman said they had received a letter from Lord Avebury 

 approving of the proposal to admit ladies, which letter he read to the 

 Meeting : — " As regards the admission of ladies, may I say that at the 

 Anthropological Institute and the Linnean Society we have found no 

 inconvenience, but, on the contrary, an advantage ; and from a practical 

 point of view, a substantial addition to our funds." 



Mr. Heron-Allen thought the. extremely clear setting forth of the 

 case by Mr. Scourfield seemed to comprise everything to be said in its 

 favour ; but whilst some persons might think Mr. Scourfield going too 

 fast, others might think that Mr. Cordon was going too slow ; but the 

 questions was certainly a very wide one. Mr. Gordon's proposal seemed, 

 however, to make rather a Star Chamber matter of it, and if this 

 committee was appointed it seemed to him that it should be wider than 

 the narrow limits suggested by Mr. Gordon, and should be composed of 

 persons of different opinions, who should be asked beforehand if they 

 were in favour of the proposal or not, because if the committee con- 

 sisted of persons who would all go one way, their recommendation 

 would be a foregone conclusion. The objections put forward by 

 Mr. Gordon did not seem to be practical ones ; the cloak-room diffi- 

 culty would be solved by the non-attendance of those persons to whom 

 it constituted a difficulty, and the question of evening dress was not 

 likely to give trouble. 



The Chairman hoped it would not be thought that by making this 

 proposal the Council desired that the subject should not be discussed, as 

 no doubt some Members had specially attended this Meeting with the 

 intention of expressing their opinions. 



Mr. Hopkinson said that he could answer the two objections to the 

 admission of ladies to their Meetings which had been raised by 

 Mr. Gordon. As regards cloak-room accommodation, the Council of 

 the Selborne Society, on which were several ladies, met in this building, 

 and no difficulty had arisen ; and as to evening dress, it was not worn 

 at the Linnean, the Royal Meteorological, and other Societies which 

 admitted ladies to their Meetings. At the Linnean Society ladies had 

 to take off their hats, the Meeting room having a flat floor ; but this 

 was not necessary at the Meetings of the Royal Meteorological Society, 

 held in the lecture theatre of the Institution of Civil Engineers. At 

 their previous Meeting he heard it objected that ladies would want to 

 do all the talking, but in his experience with several scientific societies 

 it was very rarely that a lady made a remark, but if one did speak it 

 was audibly and to the point, which was more than could always be said 

 of the men. Moreover, some of the best papers recently read at the 

 Linnean and Geological Societies were by ladies. Since they were 

 admitted into the Linnean Society, four years ago, with full privileges 

 (one now being on the Council), about twelve per annum had been elected, 

 and as nearly one-third had compounded, the addition to the funds of 



