CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 885 
(4) That all associated Societies shall have the right to appoint a 
Delegate to attend the Annual Conference, and that such Delegates shall 
have all the rights of those appointed by the affiliated Societies, except 
that of membership of the General Committee. 
(5) That all affiliated or associated Societies shall contribute annually 
the sum of at least 5s. for each fifty members, and that the funds thus 
obtained be utilised for the purposes of a ‘Journal of Corresponding 
Societies.’ 
(6) [In case proposition (5) is approved :] 
That the Council of the British Association be requested to make an 
annual grant towards the expenses of such a Journal on the understanding 
that such grants shall cease if the Journal become self-supporting. 
Mr. W. Whitaker, in opening the discussion, remarked that he had 
listened to this Address with very great pleasure, and was glad to find 
that the Chairman had been thinking on almost the same lines as he had 
himself for a few weeks. The speaker wished to bring before the meet- 
ing the terms on which Societies are affiliated, because it seemed to him 
that the time had come when it might be well to reconsider those terms 
and perhaps revise them. The existing rule is that they should take all 
Societies who publish original work. That rule is fixed by the General 
Committee. On the face of it, it was a very good rule indeed, and it 
had worked very well so far ; but the speaker was faced a few weeks ago 
with this difficulty. Visiting a Society in a fairly out-of-the-way country 
place he found it did not publish anything but the bare Annual Report. 
Yet it had a splendid museum. This was kept in very good order, with 
the specimens properly labelled. Why did not that Society publish ? One 
reason was that it had spent all its money on the museum. Did they not 
think it had done quite as well in keeping up that museum as if it had pub- 
lished ? It seemed to him that work of that sort ought to be encouraged, 
He suggested that, after discussion here, the Delegates should request the 
British Association Committee of the Corresponding Societies to consider 
_ the terms on which Societies are affiliated. He was sure those members 
of the Committee who were present would be glad to act on the lines 
which the Delegates desired. Whether they adopted or not all the propo- 
sitions the Chairman had brought forward was another question altogether, 
The speaker differed very much from him in details, but on the general 
principle he entirely agreed with him, and hoped something would be done 
to enforce that general principle and widen their bounds by letting them 
take in many Societies who really do very good work, although they publish 
but little. 
Sir Norman Lockyer said he had listened with great pleasure to the 
Chairman’s remarks, and, like the previous speaker, he felt that his 
pleasure was all the greater because they corresponded closely with some 
of his own views. Last year he attended the Conference at Southport 
chiefly to learn how the suggestion in his Presidential Address as to the 
formation of a great scientific organisation would be received by the 
Delegates. He might now explain that a British Science Guild was 
being started, quite independently of the British Association ; and it 
seemed to him that the Guild could work absolutely shoulder to shoulder 
with the Societies in the extension of their interests. He was rejoiced to 
hear the proposal that there should be more frequent communication 
between the representatives of the Societies than is afforded by the 
1904, cc 
