i9o8- The British A ssociatioji in Dublin, 215 



THE DEI.EGATKS' CONFERENCE. 



The conference of delegates from affiliated societies is 

 always an interesting feature in a British Association meeting, 

 especiall}^ to members of Field Clubs and other local scien- 

 tific bodies. At Dublin the delegates met in University 

 College on Thursday, 3rd, and Tuesda}-, 8th September. At 

 the first meeting, the chairman of the Conference (Professor 

 H. A. Miers), presided over a large gathering, and delivered 

 an address so suggestive and valuable that a somewhat ex- 

 tended summary will be w^elcomed b}^ readers of this magazine, 

 We print also a full summar}- of a paper by Mrs. Hobson, 

 of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club^ on the establishment of 

 local '* Sanctuaries." 



THE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES OF LOCAL SCIENTIFIC 



SOCIETIES. 



BY PROFESSOR H. A. MIERS, F.R.S. 



The affiliated aud associated societies number some which came into 

 existence nearly a hundred years ago, and many of them date back to a 

 time when there was no organisation which attempted to diffuse a taste 

 for science throughout the country at large. These societies were doing 

 pioneer work by creating a general scientific atmosphere. In fact, be- 

 fore the birth of the British Association they were almost the only 

 agencies occupied in this sort of pioneer work. The British Association 

 itself may be regarded as a magnified society of the same character, 

 chariging its habitat from year to year ; and the importance of the early 

 work which it effected in popularising and promoting scientific ideas 

 cannot be over-estimated. During this period the work of the societies 

 was not supplemented in any very adequate manner by the publishers or 

 the Press ; public interest in the general laws that underlie the processes 

 of Nature was only dawning ; the prevailing attitude of mind was 

 indulgent curiosity ; there was as yet no intellectual thirst for scientific 

 knowledge sufficient to create a demand for a special literature. It was 

 not easy even for those who had a personal interest in some scientific 

 subject to ascertain what progress was being made. 



It was only at a much later period, after the stimulus had been sup- 

 plied by the British Association, aud by the Local vSocieties (whose rapid 

 increase was no doubi due in a great measure to the iufluence of the 

 British As&ociation) that a real thirst for information made itself felt, and 

 created a sufficiently widespread demand for a new class of scientific 

 literature. This resulted in the appearance of a number of excellent 

 cheap text-books of elementary science, designed to give a certain 



