3 6 Report o f Delegate 



meeting, held in Nottingham, I have been requested by your 

 Secretary to give you some information in regard thereto. 



In the opening remarks of the Chairman of this Conference, 

 Dr. Garson, reference was made to what he considered an 

 inadequate appreciation by the Societies of the privileges and 

 advantages of joining in these Conferences. Among these he 

 specially mentioned the great advantage it was to the workers 

 in the various Societies to have the titles of their papers 

 printed and published in the annual reports of the British 

 Association. He also mentioned that the transactions of the 

 various Corresponding Societies were bound and kept available 

 for reference in the library of the British Association at Burling- 

 ton House. But, surely, the claim for advantage should not be 

 deemed to end with the benefit to the authors of these papers, 

 but might be shared by all the members of the diiferent 

 Societies, and an even larger public outside them. To give 

 some idea of what this possible benefit means — a reference to 

 the list of papers in but a single volume of the British Associa- 

 tion reports, that of the Edinburgh meeting, the latest pub- 

 lished — I find that in it are included the titles, authors' names, 

 &c., of about 500 papers, and these classified under the different 

 sections of the Association from A to H. 



Supposing that a member of our or any other of the allied 

 Societies desired information in regard to any subject, at the 

 time of special interest to this member, a reference to these 

 lists in some of the back volumes of the British Association 

 reports would, not improbably, open up to him or her a means 

 of obtaining what was desired, or some help towards it. 

 Attendance at Burlington House would not be indispensable. 

 An application to the Secretary of the Society would, no doubt, 

 at once receive a favourable response. 



The Conferences commenced to be held in 1886. The 

 number of Societies now in correspondence is 86. Belfast for 

 many years has had this Society and the Belfast Naturalists' 

 Field Club joining in the good work and sending delegates to 

 represent them. 



