582 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1916. 



concluded the excellent scheme which the author had formulated at Warrington. 

 He hoped that in a few years' time Mr. Bennett would come forward and 

 inform the Conference what real success had attended his effort*. Mr. Sheppard 

 referred to the -work of certain Unions, which cover districts ; and saw no 

 reason why, a similar scheme should not be successful in a town where many 

 different societies exist. 



Dr. William Lawson (Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland) 

 supported the views in the paper. He hoped that more Societies would be 

 affiliated to the Association, and dwelt on the advantage to Societies in Ireland 

 being brought in touch with the Association by being represented at its meetings. 



Mr. M. A. B. GiLMOUR (Andersonian Naturalists' Society) showed how 

 natural history societies of the south-west of Scotland are coming together. 



The Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing said : Sir Daniel Morris has kindly left it to 

 me to explain how in some respects Mr. Bennett's desires have been already 

 satisfied. Besides the great organisation of science in the north of England 

 with which our vice-president, Mr. Sheppard, is so intimately connected, we 

 have in the south-west of England the Devonshire Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Literature, and Art, founded in 1862, and for the past twenty 

 years the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies has been doing its best to 

 carry out the principle of co-operation on which it was founded. Its title is 

 commonly abbreviated into S.E.U.S.S., suggesting that -we wish to see our- 

 selves as others see us. The objects indeed at which Mr. Bennett is aiming 

 are no dooibt highly desirable. But the attainment of such aims seems ever to 

 be tinged -with Utopian romcnce, for it can scarcely be forgotten that the 

 present war broke out on August 4, 1914, while, I believe, the 15th of that very 

 month, by the fine irony of coincidence, had been arranged for the opening of 

 the International Peace Congress in Austria ! 



Mr. John Ashworth (Manchester Geological and Mining Society) pointed 

 out that the Manchester Geological and Mining Society was federated with 

 the Institution of Mining Engineers, Professor Louis being its delegate, along 

 with the other Mining Institutes, except that of South Wales, which in time 

 may join. Consequently his Society received all the other transactions, and the 

 scheme so far works satisfactorily. 



Alderman Bennett, in replying, said that he did not intend to suggest that 

 England was not able to organise, but that, as a matter of ia^t, she had not 

 organised. He felt that, if she really rose to the height of her opportunities, 

 there was not any nation in the world which was capable of greater things. 

 In spite of all the horrors of the war, he was still a believer in Utopia, and 

 was of opinion that the universe would stultify itself if ' good ' were not the 

 'final goal of ill.' He was deeply gi-ateful to the audience for their kind recep- 

 tion of his paper, and was delighted tO' find that the idea he had so long been 

 advocating was making such satisfactory progress. He was more and more 

 convinced that Federation was the clue to the solution of many of our difficulties, 

 social, political, religious and intellectual, and, if he were in order, he should 

 like to bring the discussion to a practical conclusion by moving : 



' That the Committee of the Conference of Delegates be requested to recom- 

 mend the various constituent societies to consider the desirability of forming 

 local and national federations of societies with kindred aims.' 



This proposition was put to the meeting and carried. 



Mr. William Whitaker, in the absence of Mrs. Hester Forbes Julian 

 (Torquay Natural History Society) owing to illness, read her paper on 



The Importance of Kent's Cavern as a National Site. 

 It is the unanimous opinion of geologists and anthropologists that the site 

 of Kent's Cavern is of national importance, and, as such, should be properly 

 seciured. This question, and the larger one of the nationalisation of similar 

 places, will be discussed by the delegates, and in this paper I shall confine 

 myself to a brief description of the explorations conducted by my father, 

 William Pengelly, F.R.S. The intervening years have served to securely esta- 

 blish their value, for, in the words of the late Lord Lister, ' the importance of 



