342, REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
the cost of postage would enable the proceedings of the society to become more 
widely known. 
Mr. J. Howard Reed (Manchester Geographical Society) said that he 
was not in favour of a fund for publishing original work, but was for some 
arrangement that would ease scientific societies of the burden of postage. 
Colonel Underwood (Ipswich and District Field Club) said: Several dele- 
gates have deprecated any grant being asked for from the Government, but 
these gentlemen represent rich societies with comparatively large incomes and 
a high entrance fee. The society I represent has a low entrance fee (2s. 6d.), 
but { venture to think we are doing a good work, and we are publishing a 
journal entirely composed of original research. In accordance with the 
views of our Chairman, which he has set forth in his excellent address on 
‘‘ Regional Surveys,’? we have grouped our field club into sections, each 
under a leader, which are carrying on original research in several sub- 
jects, notably in marine biology at Felixstowe by means of sea-dredging 
and microscopic investigation. It seems to me that the difficulty which 
some of the speakers pointed out of the danger cf encouraging by Govern- 
ment assistance the publication of journals of no use to science might be 
avoided by allocating the grant to some society, such as the British Associa- 
tion, who could appoint a committee to decide from a perusal of the 
journals which societies were worthy of participating in the grant. If. 
science in this country is to be decentralised and made more generally 
popular, it can only be done by judiciously assisting those societies which are 
full of zeal and doing a good educational work, but are in want of the 
necessary funds to extend their operations. Our members are largely 
composed of school-teachers whose means are small, but who, as the leaders of 
the young, should be encouraged in every way. 
Mr. A. B. Harding (Catford and District N. H. Society), speaking as 
the representative of a small local association, said that they had a 
membership of seventy-five, each paying an annual subscription of 3s. ; 
new members also paying an entrance fee of 1s. Unlike many 
societies represented here to-day they had no adverse balance, never 
having been in a position to open a banking account. So far from 
being able to publish papers read, we can only afford to issue notices 
of forthcoming meetings. Yet much of the work done by members is 
original and of high value, e.g., memoirs of long-continued observations 
on British alien plants, the effect of controlled diet on Lepidoptera, and 
many geological and archeological points of importance, the publication of 
which could hardly fail to prove helpful to science. Personally they seek no 
recompense ; all they suggest is that papers of special merit, selected by 
the Committee, should be submitted to the Council of the British- Associa- 
tion, and whenever their judgment is in favour of publication a grant 
towards this object should be made out of any funds obtained for such a 
purpose from the Treasury. 
Dr. G. B. Longstaff (Entomological Society of London) said that 
the society which he represented occupied itself not only with 
the necessary systematic work, but had of late years been greatly 
concerned with bionomic problems. For the solution of the latter it was 
essential that naturalists should publish their observations, and not take 
their knowledge with them to the grave. In the study of the working of 
natural selection it was of great importance to have numerous exact and 
repeated observations of, e.g., the attacks of birds on butterflies. Mr. 
G. A. K. Marshall had got together a mass of evidence, but much more 
was required. Sportsmen (in many cases half naturalists) might collect 
such information, so might gardeners. Tropical collectors had several times 
of late complained that they did not know what observations were required. 
They did not know what to look for, and if interesting facts came to their 
notice often failed to record them. He proposed the following resolution : 
