XVI 
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR igiO. 
of members at 83, a net decrease of about 14 per cent. It is 
often a source of great disappointment to those who have 
prepared papers or lectures, very often at great inconvenience 
and considerable expense, to find only the most meagre 
attendance at the meeting when they are called upon to 
deliver them. We sincerely trust that during the coming 
session of 1911-12 fresh efforts will be made to improve further 
the usefulness and the status of this old-established York 
District Field Naturalists’ Society. 
Sydney H. Smith, Hon. Sec. 
Photographic Section. —The number of members remains 
very much as it has done during the last two or three years, 
and three meetings. have been held. At the Annual Meeting 
on the 3rd January, igio, the President and various officers 
were appointed, after which the Secretary, Mr. Malcolm 
Spence, gave a description of a method of producing so-called 
“ Fireside ” and “ Lamplight ” studies and portraits, and 
showed by actual demonstration and lantern slides how this 
can be effected. The next meeting was held on the 16th Feb., 
1910, at 4-30 in the afternoon. The members met in the 
Museum Library, and then proceeded to the Engineers’ Office 
of the N.E. Railway Company, where the photographic pro¬ 
cesses employed in the reproduction of large plans, drawings 
and documents, were explained by Mr. Maughan and the 
operator, Mr. J. G. Bruce. Some of these processes were 
new 7 to several of our members, and a very interesting and 
instructive hour w 7 as passed. The last meeting was held on 
the 16th March, 1910, when a paper was read by Mr. Reginald 
Peters upon “ Photographic Efficiency.” He dealt with the 
inaccuracy and inefficiency of some types of shutters, after 
which he proceeded to develop by the Thermal system, as 
distinguished from the Factorial system, several plates, to 
which he had given exposures of widely varying duration, 
with the object of showing that by this method practically 
identical results could be obtained. The developer being well 
diluted, there w 7 as little chance of making over exposed plates 
too dense, while the contrast in under-exposed plates was not 
excessive. 
