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be numbered among the most useful. He also touched upon 

 the question of the amateur, whose work, he said, was often 

 of the utmost assistance, as he could undertake an amount 

 of detail that was of the greatest importance, but to which 

 the specialist could not afford to give the necessary attention. 

 It was, however, desirable that such work should be under- 

 taken with a definite object. 



The address was followed by a paper on " National 

 Anthropometr}^ : its Objects, Methods, and Local Organiza- 

 tion,'^ by Mr. J. Gray, 13. Sc, who gave a demonstration of 

 the methods of measurement, the subjects being several of 

 the delegates present. The paper was illustrated by a 

 number of lantern-slides, and a discussion followed. 



On Tuesday morning the business was " The Question of 

 a Publication Fund to Aid Scientific Societies in Publishing 

 Original Work." The subject was introduced b}' Professor 

 R. Meldola, F.R.S., who explained that the present question 

 v/as raised as the outcome of an application by the British 

 Science Guild to the Postmaster-General to allow scientific 

 papers, such as the publications of scientific societies, to 

 pass through the post at a special rate. He mentioned that 

 newspapers, which were largely advertisements, received very 

 exceptional treatment as to postal facilities, whereas the 

 publications of scientific societies received no consideration 

 whatever, and as a consequence the cost of distribution of 

 their publications was a very heavy tax upon their funds. 

 The Postmaster-General was sympathetic, but said his 

 Department could not deal with the matter. The question 

 was, therefore, whether the Government could not be 

 approached in some other way, with a view to gaining some 

 assistance for scientific societies in the publication of im- 

 portant original papers. 



Mr. John Hopkinson, F.G.S., followed, with a paper on 

 " The Financial Position of our Local Societies.'' He said 

 that he had taken at random the balance-sheets of some 

 dozen affiliated societies, and found that in the majority of 

 them there were either adverse balances or nearly so, and 

 that in all cases the cause appeared to be the production of 

 their publications. He gave details of the working of the 

 Hertfordshire Natural History Society, and referred to the 

 hard struggle they had to publish the " Flora of Hertford- 

 shire," and the annual rainfall tables, this latter work being 

 of such importance that it had been consulted by many 

 public bodies, and even by Government itself. He thought 

 that societies which were doing work of such importance 



