790 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1915, 



in science. It is as easy and as important to legislate for the preservation of 

 specimens of scientific value as for the preservation of ancient monuments. 



The thanks of the Conference were given to Dr. Hoyle. 



The Conference then adjourned. 



At a second meeting of the Conference, which was held on Friday, Septem- 

 ber 10, mention was made of the interest which had been aroused by the 

 suggestions contained in the Chairman's address, and Mr. Whitaker, the Vice- 

 Chairman, read the following explanatory remarks : 



The existing practice prevents a suitable classification of papers, and affords 

 no guarantee to research workers that the papers have been considered by any 

 body observing a constant and recognised standard. 



It is the opinion of many that the progress of science would be greatly 

 facilitated by the adoption of a system such as that suggested by the Chairman — 

 namely, by a form of limited control by the Eoyal Society in the matter of 

 publications, or by an independent federation of the non-specialised scientific 

 societies. By either of these two systems it would be possible for original 

 papers of scientific value to be made more accessible to research workers, as 

 such papers would then be suitably grouped by subjects, and would appear in 

 a recognised serial accessible in all important reference libraries. 



With regard to the proposal to form an independent federation of non- 

 specialised societies, there is the obvious objection that such an institution 

 would add one more to an already embarrassingly large variety of papers. Any 

 scheme also of the kind would require the organisation of another controlling 

 Council, necessarily composed of unequal constituents, the working of which 

 would present difficulties on account of the wide geographical distribution of 

 the societies. 



On the other hand, the publications of the Eoyal Society are already estab- 

 lished, and are recognised throughout the world as authoritative. The machinery 

 for controlling such publications is already organised and in working order, 

 additional advantage being gained by the fact (1) that the sectional committees 

 of the Royal Society are independent of local influences, and (2) that the addi- 

 tional cost of the publications would be small compared with that of establishing 

 a new serial, appropriately divided into parts, to suit the natural subdivisions 

 of science. From the financial point of view, therefore, it would be more 

 economical, even if the provincial societies had to bear the additional cost to 

 the Royal Society, to adopt the system suggested by the Chairman. 



Comments were made by many of the delegates present, including Sir Daniel 

 Morris (Bournemouth Natural Science Society), Sir Eustace Gurney and Mr. 

 Alfred W. Oke (Brighton and Hove Natural History Society and South-Eastern 

 Union of Scientific Societies), Mr. Wilfred Mark Webb (the Selborne Society), 

 Mr. Harry Sowerbutts (Manchester Geographical Society), Mr. Henry Coates 

 (Perthshire Society of Natural Science), and Miss Crosfield (Holmesdale Natural 

 History Society). Mr. H. W. Davies (Somerset Archfeological and Natural 

 History Society) thought that it might be advisable to bring the matter before 

 the Corresponding Societies Committee before a further step was taken. The 

 following resolution was then passed : ' That this Conference of Delegates 

 invites the attention of the Corresponding Societies Committee to the Chair- 

 man's opening address, in which suggestions are made for reforming the existing 

 varied and unorganised practice of publishing original papers.' 



The suggestion that Sir Thomas Holland should be asked to join the Corre- 

 sponding Societies Committee was enthusiastically received. 



The second subject for discussion, namely ' Colour Standards,' was intro- 

 duced by Mr. J. Ramsbottom in the following paper : — 



During the past ten years there have been published three schemes of colours : 

 Oberthiir and Dauthenay's ' Repertoire de Couleurs,' Klincksieck and Valette's 

 ' Code des Couleurs,' and Ridgway's ' Color Standards and Color Nomenclature.' 

 These three works have been adopted by different naturalists, and it has seemed 

 to the British Mycological Society that the question of a colour standard is 

 one that might profitably be brought to the notice of the Corresponding Societies 

 of the British Association. 



As everyone who has had to deal with colour in the natural sciences realises, 

 there are two fundamental difficulties : (1) the difficulty of understanding what 



