PREFACE. 
Tue Annual Meeting of the British Association in 1917 was can- 
celled, for the first time in the history of the Association, under 
circumstances described in the Report of the Council included in this 
volume. 
The Organising Committees of the Sections, having been empowered 
by the Council to do so, held in the early part of the summer such 
meetings as were necessary to transact such business as was essential 
in spite of the cancellation of the Annual Meeting, including the 
forwarding to the Committee of Recommendations of proposals for 
the appointment or reappointment of Research Committees, and for 
grants of money to some of them. The Organising Committees were 
also empowered to receive Reports from Research Committees, and to 
recommend for printing in the Annual Report suchof these Reports 
as it was thought undesirable to delay. 
On July 6, 1917, in the rooms of the Linnean Society, meetings 
were held of :— 
The Council, at 11.30 a.m., to approve the Report of the 
Council to the General Committee, and for other business ; 
The General Committee, at 12 noon, to receive the Reports 
of the Council and of the General Treasurer, to confirm the 
arrangements made in connection with the cancellation of the 
Annual Meeting, and for other business; 
The Committee of Recommendations, at 2.30 p.m., to make 
recommendations to the General Committee concerning the appoint- 
ment of, and grants of money to, Research Committees, etc. ; 
The General Committee, at 4 p.m., to receive the Report of the 
Committee of Recommendations. 
The present volume contains, as usual, the Reports of the Council 
- and of the General Treasurer, and the list of Research Committees 
appointed by the General Committee. The usual lists and other 
records referring to previous meetings are omitted. For the rest, 
the volume contains only the Reports of Research Committees, referred 
to above, of which the General Committee, on the advice of the other 
committees concerned, decided that it would be undesirable to delay 
the issue. The Report of the Meeting of the Conference of Delegates 
of Corresponding Societies, which was held in the rooms of the Geo- 
logical Society on July 5 and 6, is also included. 
1917. A 
