XX 



result from sucli a scheme as the grouping of counties for occasional 

 meetings of their local Societies, if for no other purpose than to 

 avoid duplication of work. By the proceedings of local Societies 

 being collected into one publication, diffuseness would be avoided, 

 and the money spent by individual Societies upon printing might 

 profitably be diverted into other channels. 



Professor Herdman said that many scientific men in provincial 

 towns like Liverpool had thought a great deal about this question 

 in recent years, but eveiy attempt made by the Liverpool 

 Geological and Biological Societies to decide upon a line of action 

 with other local Societies had ended in failure. Office-bearers 

 were, as a rule, opposed to federation. 



Dr. H. R. Mill stated that the East of Scotland Union of 

 Naturalists' Societies was very successful, all the members of the 

 federated Societies having the same feeling of local patriotism, and 

 that the Perthshire Society of Natural Science was one of the best 

 of these local Societies, its museum being one of the sights of 

 Perth. The Kirkcaldy Natural Histoiy Society was also one 

 of the best in the Union. These Societies meet in different towns 

 each year, have joint excursions, and are so satisfactorily related 

 as to give him great faith in the importance of union. 



Mr. G. P. Hughes said that the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club 

 was doing first-class work in archaeology and natural history, but 

 he did not think that federation could be accomplished in the 

 counties of England north of Yorkshire and Lancashire, the area 

 being so large. 



The Rev. J. 0. Bevan spoke in favour of joint meetings of the 

 Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, the Cardiff Natural History 

 Society, and the Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club. It 

 seemed to him that the British Association possessed the best 

 means of leading provincial Societies into union. 



Professor "Weiss said that the Manchester Microscopical Society 

 was willing to federate with some of the other local Societies, and 

 found a desire for affiliation, but a difficulty in carrying it out, 

 many Societies thinking that they would lose more or less of their 

 identity in union. 



Mr. R. E. Dodge (New York) mentioned the Scientific Alliance 

 of New York as having accomplished something by union, the 

 announcement of meetings being satisfactorily made in the Bulletin 

 of the Alliance, and the libraries of the different Societies being 

 kept together in one building. At Washington the Joint 

 Commission, on which all the Government scientists are represented, 

 was formed on similar lines. 



Dr. Henry M. Ami (Ottawa) said that this question had also 

 arisen in Canada. For two years they had been attempting to 

 bring about the union of the Ottawa Literary Society and the 

 Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. There was a movement on foot 

 in Canada to form a Canadian Academy of Science, in which 

 geology, botany, zoolog}', and microscopy would be represented. 



