THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 



relations with important Special or Local Societies in 

 reference to the publication of papers and other matters. 

 After long discussion, the Committee decided by a con- 

 siderable majority that it was not desirable." 



I may say in passing, that the principal outcome of 

 the prolonged labours of the Committee was the institution 

 of the present Sectional Committees within the Society ; 

 and also the present Standing Order that " In each year 

 certain ordinary meetings, not more than four in number, 

 shall be devoted, each to the hearing and consideration 

 of some one important communication, or to the discussion 

 of some important topic." 



It is instructive to note that the deliberate opinion of 

 a considerable majority of this recent Committee was 

 practically identical with the resolution passed ninety 

 years before by the recently constituted Geological Society, 

 namely, to the effect that affiliation, or any other form of 

 union through which one Society should become in any 

 respect dependent upon or subservient to any other 

 Society, is out of harmony with the original principles 

 which determined their separate formation, and cannot 

 fail to trammel and so to retard their free and natural 

 individual expansion and development. 



Even if it were possible for the Royal Society to agree 

 with the specialised Societies upon some organised plan 

 of working together, it seems more than probable that, 

 sooner or later, sources of friction would come in, since we 

 have to do with associations which have been absolutely 



