lviii repoet — 1879. 



In order to increase the facilities for issuing the Annual Reports at 

 an early date the Council propose, in case the General Committee should 

 concur in this recommendation, that in future it shall be an instruction 

 to the General Officers to issue a notice to the Reporters of all Com- 

 mittees, and to all other persons who are likely to read Papers at any 

 Meeting of the Association, requesting that all Reports, and Abstracts 

 of all Papers intended to be read in the Sections, may be sent to the 

 Assistant Secretary not later than four weeks before the Meeting, in order 

 that, if approved of by the Organising Committees, they may be put in 

 type before the Meeting, and that authors who comply with this request, 

 and whose Papers are accepted, shall be furnished, before the Meeting, 

 with printed copies of their Reports or Abstracts ; also that no Report, 

 Paper, or Abstract be inserted in the volume unless it is in the hands of 

 the Assistant Secretary or Recorder, before the conclusion of the Meeting. 



The invitation from York for 1881, received last year, will be re- 

 newed on the present occasion, and the Council have also to announce 

 that an invitation from Leicester for 1882 or 1883 will be likewise pre- 

 sented. 



The following Resolutions were referred by the General Committee at 

 Dublin to the Council for consideration and action if it should seem 

 desirable : — 



1. — 'That the question of the reappointment of the Committee, con- 

 sisting of the Rev. H. F. Barnes-Lawrence, Mr. Spence Bate, Mr. 

 H. E. Dresser (Secretary), Mr. J. E. Harting, Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 Professor Newton, the Rev. Canon Tristram, and Mr. G. Shaw 

 Lefevre, for the purpose of inquiring into the possibility of estab- 

 lishing a " close time," for the protection of indigenous animals, be 

 referred to the Council for consideration ; and that the Council be 

 empowered to take such steps in the matter as they shall think 

 most desirable in the interests of science.' 



The Council decided that the Committee should be reappointed, and 

 that in case of any action being required before the next meeting of the 

 Association, the Committee should be instructed to report to the Council 

 thereon. 



2. — ' That the attention of the Council of the Association be called 

 to the fact that the recommendations of the Royal Commission on 

 Science have been altogether disregarded in the Act lately passed 

 to enable the Trustees of the British Museum to remove the 

 Natural History Collection to South Kensington, and that the 

 Council be requested to take such steps in the matter as they shall 

 think most desirable in the interests of science.' 



The Council drew up a memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury, 

 calling the attention of H.M. Government to this question, and requesting 

 Lord Beaconsfield to receive a deputation from the Council to present 

 the Memorial. Lord Beaconsfield having been obliged to decline to re- 

 ceive the deputation on account of the press of public business, the 

 memorial was forwarded to him at his request, and a reply has been 

 received, which, together with the memorial, is given in the Appendix (I.) 

 to this Report. 



