PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 547 



Mr. Wesche said what they wanted to know was how many of the 

 Fellows of the Society supported the proposal. They had ascertained 

 this, and he thought they should act upon it — he was himself quite in- 

 different in the matter, but he thought the minority opposed to it based 

 their opposition more or less on prejudice, and lacked reasonable argu- 

 ments to support their contention. 



Dr. Hebb, referring to the last speaker's remarks, said the opinion 

 of such persons might be a little dogmatic and fanatical, but they had to 

 deal with it notwithstanding. He had originally been in favour of the 

 proposal, but in view of the information gained by the post-card ballot 

 he felt that it might be prejudicial at the present time to adopt it. 



Mr. J. H. Walters thought the Society had made a mistake in the 

 past, the effect of which was shown by the report. In other Societies 

 they had different grades of Membership, and if any alteration in the 

 by-laws was to be made he would suggest the establishment of two 

 grades — Associates as well as Fellows — the Associates having a different 

 status from the Fellows, so that whilst they were admitted to the 

 Meetings, they should not be eligible for election on the Council. If 

 they admitted women as Fellows he did not see what was to prevent 

 them getting on the Council. He preferred that the conduct of the 

 business of the Society should remain, as at present, in the hands of 

 business men. Science had no sex, and the Microscope was an instru- 

 ment with which ladies could do excellent work, and it seemed to him 

 that they would be doing themselves a wrong to exclude ladies. The 

 object of a scientific society was to accumulate and classify knowledge, 

 and if ladies could help to do this in any way, they ought to be welcome 

 in numbers small or large. 



Mr. Rousselet said he had seen Mr. Scourfield the previous day, and 

 though he was the original mover in this matter, he was now, as a result 

 of the deliberation of the Special Committee, in favour of Mr. Gordon's 

 proposal. 



The Chairman said that since the question was first raised, Dr. Hebb 

 said that, personally, he had turned round in his'opinion. He (the Chair- 

 man) had also turned round, but in the opposite direction, from being 

 dead against the proposal to being in favour of it when he found that, 

 whilst we took subscriptions from ladies we refused them the privileges. 

 He considered further, that the whole circumstances had been changed 

 by the result of the post-card ballot, which seemed to point in one 

 direction, and one direction only. He thought, really, the opinion that 

 any one individual held, must be made subservient to the opinion of the 

 major number of the Fellows ; this had been expressed in the most 

 emphatic and unequivocal manner by the post-card return as already 

 mentioned, and therefore it appeared to him, the present meeting could 

 hardly go against such a determined expression " that ladies be admitted 

 and with the full privileges of the male Fellows." 



Mr. Gordon said it was very easy to exaggerate the value of the post- 

 card ballot which had been taken from Fellows without any knowledge 

 of the special circumstances which had to be taken into consideration. 

 Thus it was probably assumed by most writers of the reply post-cards, 

 that they were being asked to open the door for some more or fewer 

 ladies who actually desired to attend the Meetings of the Society. Had 



