FIVE YEARS' RETROSPECT ix 



have been addressed to H.M. Government (1932, 1935), and in 1933 a 

 committee of the Engineering Section was appointed to review the know- 

 ledge available for the reduction of noise. This committee informed 

 itself by inquiry through the press as to public feeling against the various 

 classes of noise emitted by motor vehicles and aircraft. Research upon 

 the silencing of motor-cycle engines was carried out, and its results were 

 effectively demonstrated at the Aberdeen Meeting in 1934. The Com- 

 mittee's statement in the Report for that year (p. 252) indicates the results 

 both of its public enquiry and of the research referred to. Subsequently 

 to the appointment of this committee, a committee was set up by the 

 Ministry of Transport to investigate the whole question. 



As the result of a report received, not through any Section of the 

 Association itself but from the Association of British Zoologists, the Council 

 in 193 1 appointed a committee to consider action with a view to the 

 amelioration of customs regulations affecting the importation of scientific 

 specimens and apparatus. The Custom House authorities supplied the 

 Association with a memorandum on the reliefs from customs duties on 

 scientific instruments and cinematograph films, in order that advice might 

 be given as required to scientific workers, and also a note on the importa- 

 tion of scientific specimens in spirit, which is published in the Report, 

 1932, pp. xxi-xxii. In 1934 it was pointed out to the Council, by resolu- 

 tion from Section D (Zoology), that although technical cinematograph 

 films for the advancement of scientific knowledge may be imported duty 

 free for exhibition before scientific institutions, there was no provision 

 for the free importation of films for the teaching of science in universities 

 and similar institutions. It was ascertained, however, from the British 

 Film Institute l that an international convention was expected to be con- 

 cluded to cover, inter alia, such cases as those reported to the Council. 



The Council were made aware in 1933 of measures in progress to 

 establish a nature reserve in the Galapagos Islands. The interest of the 

 Association is peculiarly engaged in this question, since Darwin's house 

 at Downe, Kent, is in its charge as a national memorial (Section IV, 

 below), and Darwin's investigations of the unique fauna of the Galapagos 

 Islands helped fundamentally to influence the views which were given 

 expression in The Origin of Species. The Council were subsequently 

 informed of action by the Ecuadorean Government, which, by decree, 

 made possible the reservation of certain of the islands and the protection 

 of the fauna of scientific interest. The gratification of the General Com- 

 mittee at this measure was conveyed from the Norwich Meeting (1935) to 

 the Ecuadorean Government and was acknowledged, and the Council 

 appointed representatives of the Association to act on any international 

 or other joint committee which might be formed to expedite the establish- 

 ment of the reserve. The centenary of Darwin's landing in the islands 

 (September, 1835) was pleasantly marked by the receipt of a cablegram 

 from the present H.M.S. Beagle, recalling that ' a hundred years ago 

 our most distinguished passenger landed ' there, and continuing : ' the 

 present Beagle salutes the British Association, the trustees of Science.' 



1 On the formation of this institute, see p. xii. 



