210 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917. 
gives in tabular form the most important particulars of 175 publishing societies, 
while appendices give less full information on eleven societies of which the 
Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science then 
consisted, of twenty-one which formed the Midland Union of Natural History 
Societies, and of thirty-eight also included in the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, 
with the exception of twenty in the two Unions, appearing in the main 
list. This was the origin of the official Corresponding Societies Committee, 
which presented its first report in 1885, giving in it a list of thirty-eight Corre- 
sponding Societies and appending to it an ‘Index of Papers referring to Local 
Scientific Investigations published during the past year’ by those societies. 
Such an index has since then been annually appended to the report of the 
Committee. The first official Conference of Delegates was held in the same 
year at Aberdeen, reports of that and of every subsequent Conference appear- 
ing in the annual Reports of the British Association. The last unofficial Con- 
ference having been held at Montreal in 1884, the official Conferences followed 
without a break. 
In the report of the Corresponding Societies Committee printed in the 
Report of the British Association for 1902, there is (pp. 852-853) a list of 
Committees of the Association which desire the co-operation of the Corre- 
sponding Societies, and one of subjects selected by the Delegates for investiga- 
tion which are not included in that list. The two lists embrace all the 
Sections of the Association except A, Mathematical and Physical Science; 
F, Economic Science and Statistics; I, Physiology; L, Educational Science; and 
necessarily M, Agriculture, that being a Section formed since that date. In the 
following remarks I dwell most fully on some subjects which are within the 
scope of the omitted Sections, except that of Physiology, a science which does 
not appeal for concerted action by our Corresponding Societies. 
Section A, MATHEMATICAL AND PuysicaL Science, ought to be divided as it 
is in the French Association, which has a Section dealing with the Meteorology 
and Physics of the Globe. Meteorology in our Association is almost ignored, 
and yet there is no other science to which assistance can be so easily rendered 
by the members of our Corresponding Societies, nor one in which uniformity of 
observation is so important. Observations need only be taken once a day, at 
9 a.M., and are mostly only taken at that hour, but may also be taken at 9 P.M. ; 
if three times a day, the other hour is 3 p.m., in ‘summer time’ necessarily 
an hour later by the clock. 
The chief object for which meteorological observations are taken, apart 
from that of forecasting the weather, is to arrive at a knowledge of the 
climate of a place, and we can only compare the climate of one place with that 
of another from the results of observations taken at the same local time at 
each place—that is, at the same interval of time after sunrise. This does 
not vary so greatly within the area of the British Isles but that Greenwich 
time gives satisfactory results, and with rainfall only the difference is of no 
moment. Suggestions for certain meteorological observations were given by 
Mr. Symons in the address referred to, but with evident intent he does not 
specially treat of the subject to which he gave his greatest attention — rainfall. 
Although since that address was delivered observers of rainfall have increased 
in number in the British Isles from about 3,000 to 5,500, the variations in 
rainfall from place to place are so great that many more observers are still 
required, especially in Ireland, in the western counties of Wales, in Shropshire 
and Staffordshire, and along the east coast of England. Each delegate should 
see to it that his own neighbourhood is adequately represented. A knowledge 
of the mean and extreme rainfall in any district is most important in relation 
to water-supply and agriculture, and it can only be gained from the records 
of a great number of rain-gauges taken for many years. Dr. H. R. Mill, 
Director of the British Rainfall Organisation, has twice brought this subject 
before the Conference of Delegates, and has added to records of rainfall more 
records of bright sunshine as urgently required. Observations with a Campbell- 
Stokes sunshine-recorder give little more trouble than those of rainfall with 
a Snowdon rain-gauge, but it is not so easy to measure the records, and the 
instrument is expensive. 
At the Conference held at Leeds in 1890 I suggested the formation of a 
