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THE ADVANCEMENT OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE 

 BY LOCAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.* 



H. J. MACKINDER, M.A. 



The honour of presiding over your Conference has been 

 conferred upon me in order, as I understand, that I may have 

 the opportunity of bringing before you the desirabihty of local 

 geographical research in this country. From the fact that I 

 live in London, I cannot pretend to offer any experience or 

 useful advice either in the matter of the opportunities open 

 to the Societies which you represent, or in regard to the diffi- 

 culties which may beset them. How far what I am going to 

 say may be practical under your conditions is for you to decide. 

 My function, it appears to me, is to place before you an ideal, 

 and to speak to you simply as a geographer. This much, how- 

 ever, I am entitled to say — that the work which I wish to 

 commend to your attention has been accomplished in neigh- 

 bouring countries, in some degree at any rate, by the co-operation 

 of local agencies. 



In France there are some twenty local Geographical Societies, 

 there being one, with very few exceptions, in each of the old 

 provincial centres. These Societies hold an annual conference 

 which resembles this Conference except that it is for geography 

 only. Not a few geographical studies relating to different parts 

 of France have emanated from these Societies, and have been 

 published in the ' Annales de Geographic ' and other journals. 

 It is in part from these fragments that Vidal de la Blache has 

 built up his admirable description of France in the introductory 

 volume of the great history which is now being issued by Lavisse. 



In Germany the same end is attained, although with 

 slightly different machinery. There, as you know, univer- 

 sity education is more markedly decentralised than in France, 

 or even in Britain, with the result that scattered over the whole 

 country there are geographical institutes of university rank 

 whose professors and students have put together a rich geog- 

 raphical literature descriptive of every part of the land. 



My suggestion is that in this country a similar work might be 

 achieved by the co-operation of your Societies. It is true that 



* Address delivered before the Conference of Delegates at the 

 Leicester meeting of the British Association ; printed here b}^ permission 

 of the Conncil of the Association. 



Naturalist, 



