REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. lix 
International Scientific Congress, the Council, having regard to the special 
circumstances of the present and coming year, have deemed it wiser to 
postpone any decisive action for the present. 
In accordance with the powers granted to them by the General 
Committee in the other resolutions: The Council have considered the 
question of amalgamating the Departments of Zoology and Botany and 
of Anatomy and Physiology for the present year, and have decided to 
amalgamate them under the designation of the Section of Biology, retain- 
ing the Department of Anthropology. 
The Council have also appointed a Committee, with Mr. F. Galton as 
Chairman, and Mr. H. G. Fordham as Secretary, ‘to draw up suggestions 
upon methods of more systematic observation and plans of operation for 
local Societies, together with a more uniform mode of publication of the 
results of their work.’ This Committee were also requested to draw up a 
list of local Societies which published their transactions. They have pre- 
sented a preliminary report to the Council, with a request that it may be 
communicated to the Committees of Sections for consideration and sug- 
gestions. This the Council propose to do, and recommend that after it 
assumes its final form it be printed in the annual volume, among the 
reports made to the Association. A list of publishing local Societies will 
be appended to the report. 
The Council_have further appointed a Committee to co-operate with 
them for the purpose of considering the arrangements for the meeting at 
Montreal. 
In respect of this meeting, the Council have to inform the Association 
that of those who were members at the time of the meeting at South- 
ampton, 445 have notified their intention of being present at the meeting 
at Montreal, and 55 persons have either become members or expressed 
their wish to become members, with the view of taking part in this 
meeting. Negotiations with respect to the arrangements for the meeting 
on the basis of the letter from Sir A. T. Galt, dated March 3, 1883, are 
still proceeding, and for some little time it will not be possible -for the 
Council to communicate the precise details to the members of the Associa- 
tion, but the following points may be regarded as settled: There will be 
a reduction of fares on the part of the Steamship Companies to all 
members of the Association, and a further reduction, in consequence of 
the Canadian subsidy, at any rate to all who were members at the meet- 
ing of 1882; and there will be an excursion after the meeting—free of 
cost to members as regards transit—one to the Rocky Mountains, lasting 
from twelve to fourteen days, another to the Falls of Niagara and 
Chicago ; with probably one or two shorter excursions. As soon as all 
details can be arranged the Council will communicate them to the 
members ot the Association. 
The Council have considered what alterations, if any, it may be 
desirable to make in the transaction of business at the Montreal Meeting, 
in consequence of the exceptional distance, and the unprecedented fact 
that the place of meeting is not within the British Isles. They are of 
opinion that, as there is likely to be so representative a gathering of 
British members at Montreal, and as 154 members of the General Com- 
mittee have signified their intention of being present, little alteration will 
be necessary in the custom, and no changes need be proposed in the 
written law of the Association. There will, however, be difficulties in 
fixing the place of meeting for 1886, and the date of that in 1885, for 
