1 



expedite the work. One sub-committee might confine itself to 

 physical measurements, another to dialect and folklore, a third to 

 ancient monuments, and so on. Then photographers were needed 

 for illustrations of people and monuments ; and persons with a turn 

 for history might consider the historical evidence of continuity of 

 race. Investigations of this kind would at once enrich the 

 Transactions of a local society, and help the work of the British 

 Association. 



There is plenty of scope in Hertfordshire for the work of this 

 Committee, but hitherto I have been unable to induce any member 

 of our Society to take part in it, or in any branch of it. Much of 

 the work can only be done satisfactorily by a medical man who 

 visits country districts, but there are many branches of the inquiry 

 on which almost anyone who has resided for some time in the 

 county could give information. 



Other Committees of the British Association to which assistance 

 may be given by members of our Society are those on Meteoro- 

 logical Photography, on the Teaching of Natural Science in 

 Elementary Schools, and on the position of Geography in the 

 Educational System of the Country. These subjects were not 

 brought before this Conference. A list of the Committees, with 

 the names and addi'esses of their Secretaries, is appended to the 

 previous report. 



Mr. HoPKiNsoN then read a letter which he had received from 

 the Chairman and Secretary of the Corresponding Societies Com- 

 mittee of the British Association requesting to be favoured with 

 a statement of the views of the Society on a suggestion for the 

 formation of District Unions of Natural History Societies. 



A discussion ensued in which the President, Mr. "W. P. Carter, 

 Mr. A. E. Gibbs, Mr. G. P. Neele, Mr. T. Vaughan Poberts, 

 Mr. John Weall, and Mr. Hopkinson took part, and further dis- 

 cussion was deferred to the next meeting of the Society at "Watford. 



The President referred to the great loss which the Society had 

 sustained by the death of Dr. Brett, who, he said, was eminently 

 a local man, devoting his time and talents to the welfare of the 

 town in which he lived, in which there is scarcely an institution 

 with whose interests his name is not interwoven, in scarcely any 

 one more than in this Society, the presidential chair of which he 

 occupied with such advantage to the Society twenty years ago. 

 He loved the organization, which he did much to foster, if not 

 to found, and, taking enthusiastic pleasure in the study of Nature, 

 it was his delight to promote and encourage that study in every way. 



Mr. HoPKENSON said that the Society originated in a conversation 

 which he had with Dr. Brett in the year 1873. When he came to 

 reside at Watford in September, 1874, they talked the matter over 

 again, and that conversation resulted in the formation of the 

 Society in the beginning of the following year, so that Dr. Brett 

 was certainly one of the founders, and he thought that he might 

 be considered the principal one. 



