224 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917. 
the meteorology and orography together constitute the climatic factors. In the 
local study of vegetation in this country there is little left to do in making 
floras. We have our local floras complete, except for occasional new records. 
The distribution of some important or interesting species may be shown on 
our maps, but it is to the study of the plant formations and associations and to 
the preparation of vegetation maps that the botanists of the regional survey 
will devote most attention. Vegetation maps have been published for a few 
districts. Those of the Peak District by Dr. Moss are excellent examples. 
Other vegetation surveys have been made by members of the British Ecological 
Society, but their publication is in many cases held up on account of expense. 
Dependent again upon the vegetation and physical environment, and react- 
ing upon them in a variety of ways, is the animal life of the region, which is 
capable, of treatment similar to that given to the vegetation. 
Finally, we have mankind dependent upon his whole environment, physical 
and organic, and to an ever-increasing extent master of it. It is in mankind 
and his contemporaries that we find regional links with recent paleontology, 
and we have to follow his career from his advent in our regions through the 
realms of archeology and history to that of modern sociology. 
Prehistoric man is worthy of a place to himself. We shall have to deal with 
his implements, weapons, earthworks, and other remains, paying special heed to 
locality, and to reconstruct as far as may be the picture of his life in our 
regions. 
From the dawn of history the human survey may well be divided into two 
parallel brar.ches, which in the preceding diagram I have provisionally called 
‘Historic Record* and ‘Social Evolution.’ The former will be an analysis 
and record to any degree of minuteness of all human institutions and activities 
in each historic period; the latter a synthesis and interpretation of the records, 
its aim being to show what each successive period has stood for in the region, 
and in particular what heritage it has handed down to the complex of our 
present civilisation. 
The object of all research is to establish relations of cause and effect, and to 
enable us to foresee events and, if necessary, to deal with them in advance. 
The most valuable result of our surveys, therefore, apart from their great 
educational value to the surveyors themselves, will be to enable us to detect 
and understand the tendencies of our times, and put us in a position, as citizens, 
intelligently to encourage good and discourage evil ones. For this reason, in 
the above outline scheme, 1 have given a special heading to what I have called 
‘Incipient Evolution.’ By so doing we are not so likely to overlook this all- 
important aspect of the survey. We shall find, indeed, when the survey is in 
progress, that this branch will often give temporary direction to our efforts. 
The above primary classification is, by accident, ninefold, and therefore well 
adapted to a decimal system of notation for indexing, the cipher being left 
free for methodology. 
When we commenced to get to work at Croydon we found there were many 
questions of technique to be settled, and that the whole scheme of work needed 
carefully thinking out, and it appeared to us that many things could be better 
settled by a larger body representing a number of societies which might in the 
future be undertaking surveys. Such an organisation, for instance, as the 
South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies would, it appeared, be able to 
encourage, co-ordinate, and secure some measure of uniformity in survey work 
by its constituent societies. Accordingly I introduced the subject to the South- 
Eastern Union at its Brighton Congress in 1915, and as a result a Regional 
Survey Committee of members of the Union, with Professor G. 8S. Boulger as 
its Chairman, was formed. After some preliminary work this committee has 
settled for the present upon four lines of action. I will deal with each of these 
separately. 
1. The partition of the south-eastern counties into areas suitable for local 
surveys.—This involves the question, ‘What is a region?’ Strictly speaking, 
the term used in this connection is a centre of civilisation (a city, town, or even 
a village) and its natural environs. It is not always easy to define the limits 
of such a region, and the task of the committee, which aims at covering the 
whole of the Union’s area by a mosaic of small regions, is not a light one. 
, a 
