u 



337 



THE 



CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES' COMMITTEE 

 OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Cambridge, 1904. 



REPORT OF THE CLUB'S DELEGATE, 



F. W. RUDLER, I.S.O., F.G.vS., President E.F.C., Secretary of the Conference 



of Delegates. 



{Read November 26th, 1904.] 



NDER the presidency of the distinguished physicist, 

 Principal E. H. Griffitlis, F.R.S., of the University 

 College of South Wales, the delegates held two meetings at 

 Cambridge on the i8th and 23rd of August. A discussion 

 of rather animated character, initiated by the Chairman's 

 address, shewed that many of the delegates entertained the 

 opinion that a much closer union should be established between 

 the Association and the affiliated societies. The Chairman 

 proposed that a "Journal of Corresponding Societies" should 

 be started, and that this should be supported by levying a 

 contribution from the affiliated societies at the rate of 5s. per 

 annum for every 50 members. This works out at scarcely 

 more than a penny a year for each member. If the Essex 

 Field Club has on its roll 300 subscribing members, an annual 

 contribution of 30s. would be payable. The Journal would be, 

 at any rate at first, a very unambitious publication — a mere 

 record of meetings, with titles only of papers, and with official 

 notices from any society which might desire to call attention to 

 work requiring co-operation, or to any points on which infor- 

 mation was desired. By means of this organ all the societies 

 could unite in common action for any purpose considered to be 

 of national or scientific importance. The committal of the 

 British Association to the publication of such a periodical is a 

 grave step, which will need serious consideration by the 

 Corresponding Societies' Committee and by the Council of the 

 Association. Several delegates have pointed out that the societies 

 which they represent could ill afford, in their financial struggle, 

 to subscribe to such a journal in the way suggested. 



\i present no society can be affiliated to the British 

 Association unless it publish papers recording some kind of 

 original observation. Principal Griffiths suggested that this 

 condition might well be relaxed in favour of certain smaller 



