330 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



enthusiasm and that on the occasion of a joint meeting one 

 or other section stays away en bloc except for its officers. 



Now we must admit that the Society has always been or- 

 ganised by sections and that this plan has worked for more than 

 half a century ; it will not be well to destroy it until we are 

 sure that we have something to put in its place which will also 

 work. Like scientific men let us experiment ; let the Council 

 borrow one day or two days from the Sections, take a list of 

 subjects — half a dozen or more which will unite several interests 

 at each — and invite a set of speakers, who will know that 

 something considerable is expected from them and that they 

 are to play leading parts in a full-dress debate. The organisa- 

 tion would mean some work but suggestions might come up 

 from the sectional committees and the results would not be 

 without value both to the participants and to the rank and file. 

 Thus a beginning could be made with the grouping idea, to 

 see if it increases the interest of the professionals and attracts 

 the public at large. 



The next point is that we owe some duty to the local 

 members ; we might explain to them with the authority a 

 stranger possesses how Science bears upon their own com- 

 munity. It is true that many Sections set aside one meeting for 

 a discussion of some subject of local interest — such as steel- 

 making at Sheffield — and that one of the public lectures is 

 selected to the same end ; much more might be done in this 

 direction. Let the Council again pick out eight or ten men, not 

 necessarily one for each section but thereabouts, who shall ex- 

 pound the local aspect of their subject simply and untechnically. 

 The " Guide " is mostly a valuable production but how much 

 more idea of say the geology of the district should we gain 

 if it were also expounded to us viva voce by a master ! These 

 lectures need not be tawdry or clap-trap in any way, they need 

 not even be elementary ; they must be addressed to the layman, 

 that sort of layman which each of us feels himself to be when 

 he enters an alien section. 



Of course it will be argued at once that this is not advancing 

 science, but at least it is advancing the appreciation of science 

 and any advancement of science in its narrowest sense that 

 goes on at the sectional meetings can easily be compressed into 

 half the time now given up to them. 



Its expense may be urged against this proposal, for it 



