36 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, 
not on a county basis, and many of our counties do not coincide with 
natural geographical units or groups of units. You have the same thing 
in France, where the natural ‘pays,’ such as Caux, Bray, Bresse, Bauce, 
Sologne, and so forth, bear distinctive names more frequently perhaps 
than in this country. Economy of effort should, in the case of certain 
counties at any rate, prompt an exchange of territory with adjoining 
counties. In Hampshire, for instance, the little strip of the Weald along 
the eastern border of the county could not be understood apart from the 
much larger Wealden areas of Surrey and Sussex, and the study of it 
might therefore very reasonably be separated from that of the great chalk 
plateau of Hampshire and Wiltshire. In other words, your societies might 
divide the land into countries analogous to the ‘countries’ hunted by 
the various packs of hounds, the Quorn, the Craven, and the rest of 
them. 
Finally, I would suggest that any local Society which saw its way 
to organising and carrying through such a thorough and comprehensive 
survey as to lead to a geographical synthesis of all the aspects, physical 
and humane, of local knowledge would blend itself with the local life and 
establish itself securely among the local institutions. On all hands it is 
now agreed that education in such subjects as geography and history 
should be based on the study of the home district. What finer work for 
the efforts of a local Society than to produce a text-book for the local 
schools which shall rouse and satisfy interest in the surrounding country- 
side and in the local monuments, generate local patriotism, and establish 
an outlook into the larger world on a concrete foundation rather than 
on the sands of mere book learning? Such a text-book might also be 
correlated with the local museum arranged for visual instruction, and so 
classified as to prompt systematic thought. Of course I am not here 
advocating the incorporation into such an educational system of the 
occasional special collections, which have more than a local value and are 
visited by scholars from a distance. 
The outcome of it all seems to me to be this: that while we can 
advance knowledge only by being specialists, yet we do require that in 
each important Society there should be one or more whose specialty con- 
sists in the correlation for the locality of all the other specialties ; and, 
in my opinion, this correlation can best be accomplished on a geographica 
basis and by geographical methods ; 
Captain Dubois Phillips (Liverpool Geographical Society), in proposing 
a vote of thanks to the Chairman, expressed his satisfaction that a 
geographical subject had at length been brought before the Delegates. 
He remarked that Geography as outlined by Mr. Mackinder was some- 
thing vastly different from the general conception of that science. He 
hoped that the address would be printed, and copies forwarded to every 
Geographical Society in the country, as well as to the Scientific Societies 
in correspondence with the Association. 
Dr. H. R. Mill (Perthshire Society of Natural Science), in seconding 
the vote of thanks, referred to the inspiriting character of the Chairman’s 
discourse and the stimulus it would no doubt give to some individuals 
and Societies. He feared, however, that the complete realisation of Mr. 
Mackinder’s scheme would not be effected in the lifetime of anyone 
present ; still, one of the reasons for the existence of a Society was to carry 
out work that was too hard or too long for an individual. 
