1896 OUR LOCAL SOCIETIES. 171 



megalithic monuments, natural springs, well-borings, earth-tremors, 

 all meteorological phenomena, the migrations of birds, etc., should be 

 systematically recorded over the whole country, and no better means 

 for securing this result can be desired than the British Association 

 committees. There is probably, however, not one of these committees 

 that does not experience the lack of observers in many outlying districts. 

 If the many societies of Lancashire were to follow the example of 

 those of Yorkshire, those of the northern, eastern, and south-western 

 counties to act on the initiative given at Tunbridge Wells, and what 

 union there may still be between those of the Midland counties were 

 to be consolidated and extended over the whole area, much would 

 have been done. 



It will be an important question for the South-eastern Union to 

 decide whether they will not do well to enroll private members as 

 well as delegates, a means of raising funds which is adopted by the 

 Yorkshire Union; but next year's meeting, which is to be held again 

 at Tunbridge Wells, though the congress is intended after that to be 

 migratory, will have many other initial questions to decide. Mean- 

 while, it is much to be wished that at the Liverpool meeting of the 

 British Association something may be done to encourage a step 

 forward in the direction of a closer bond of union between organisa- 

 tions scattered over the whole country and the association itself. 



It is hardly necessary to add that no system of unions or associa- 

 tions need involve any loss of independent self-control on the part of 

 any local society. 



G. S. BOULGER. 



[As we understand from Mr. George Abbott's letter to Sir Dougias 

 Galton, which was read at the Tunbridge Wells Congress above 

 mentioned, Mr. Abbott is in thorough sympathy with Professor 

 Boulger's views. He has, in fact, sketched out a complete scientific 

 organisation, and one not to be despised, although perhaps it rather 

 recalls the method and precision of which French philosophers are 

 proud than the somewhat random growth of most EngHsh institutions. 

 He desires that the whole of England should be partitioned among a 

 small number of scientific unions, in intimate connection with the 

 British Association, as the supreme directing body. The area of 

 each union would be similarly partitioned into districts allotted to the 

 several component societies. Of these societies each would nominate 

 an honorary corresponding member in every village of its district. 

 Supposing the whole machinery to work with that perfection which 

 the enthusiasm and philanthropy of its conception demand and 

 deserve, all the people of this land will before long be brought into 

 touch with "natural knowledge." They will learn to observe and to 

 record. They will learn to value and to preserve. From numberless 

 eyes and hands science will receive and welcome the infinite details 

 of investigation and research, while by the proposed interdependence 

 of all the parts of the body corporate, the control of experience and 

 learning will be available to shield the ignorant and the beginner 

 from the risk of publishing what is erroneous, of republishing what is 

 already perfectly well known, or of hiding away in some obscure 

 publication results that are really important. — Ed., Nat. Sci.] 



