CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF 

 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 



The Conference was held at University College, Nottingham, on 

 Thursday, September 2, and Monday, September 6, 1937, under the 

 presidency of Professor James Ritchie. 



A large audience attended the meetings in addition to delegates repre- 

 senting seventy-five societies. 



Thursday, September 2. 



Dr. Tierney, Secretary of the Conference, reported that nominations 

 were required to fill two vacancies on the Corresponding Societies Com- 

 mittee in place of Sir Albert Kitson, deceased, and Mr. T. Sheppard, who 

 retires by seniority. A cordial vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Sheppard 

 for his valued services and the delegates approved the following recom- 

 mendations to Council as members of the Committee for the ensuing 

 year : 



Prof. J. Ritchie. 



Dr.Vaughan Cornish. 



Mr. T. S. Dymond. 



Prof.W. T. Gordon. 



Dr. A. B. Rendle. 



Dr. G. F. Herbert-Smith. 



The delegates appointed the following representatives to the Coinmittee 

 of Recommendations : Prof. J. Ritchie and Dr. C. Tierney. 



ADDRESS ON 



THE OUTLOOK OF NATURAL HISTORY 



By Prof. James Ritchie, 

 President of the Conference. 



The Natural History Outlook in Local Societies. 



You as the elected representatives of the Corresponding Societies stand for 

 that love of Nature and inquisitiveness about natural phenomena which 

 have been the background of some of the greatest contributions this country 

 has made to the knowledge of natural history ; and I stand as a representa- 

 tive of the study of animal life in the Universities. In the beginning our 

 interests were similar, at any rate similarly catholic ; we were baptised with 

 the same baptism, for the majority of your Societies are Natural History 

 Societies and the Scottish Chairs were founded and are still known as 

 Chairs of Natural History. And in the beginning (the Chair I formerly 

 occupied in Aberdeen University was founded in 1753, that in Edinburgh 

 which I now occupy in 1767) the outlook from these Chairs was wide and 

 all-inclusive, they surveyed the world of living nature. Their outlook 



