liv 
PROCEEDINGS, 
Society lie represented, and although he did not think that 
Hertfordshire was particularly troubled with flies in general or 
with fleas in particular, he doubted whether any other county 
could show so large a list of either. 
Mr. John Gray then introduced the subject of “ National 
Anthropometry: its Objects, Methods, and Local Organization.” 
National anthropometry may be described, he said, so far as 
we are concerned, “ as the study, by exact measurements, of the 
origin, racial composition, and evolution of the British nation. 
. . . We may define anthropometry as quantitative anthropology.” 
As Mr. Gray’s remarks cannot be briefly summarised, reference 
should be made to them in the ‘ Report of the British Association ’ 
for 1909, pp. 332-836. He urged the Corresponding Societies 
to take up the work for carrying out which instructions would 
be found in a Report published by the Royal Anthropological 
Institute, price one shilling. 
Second Meeting. 
Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., introduced a discussion on the 
“Suggested Publication Fund” circular of the Corresponding 
Societies Committee by reading extracts from that circular and 
commenting upon them. 
The circular points out that “ There is reason for believing 
that many, if not most, of the scientific societies in this country 
are suffering from want of sufficient means to enable them to 
publish the results of original investigations which are presented 
by their fellows or members. The scientific activity of the 
country, as represented by the publications of these societies, is 
steadily increasing; but with this increased output of scientific 
work there has not been a corresponding increase in the finances 
of the societies concerned, and so in many cases their resources 
are strained to such an extent that their Councils are unable to 
publish much of the original work done, or, if they spend to the 
utmost of their resources upon their publications, their work in 
other directions is crippled.” To assist in the cost of publishing, 
it then states that “ it has been suggested that the establishment 
of a Publication Fund of the same kind as the G-overnment 
G-rant for Scientific Investigations, now administered by the 
Royal Society, would be the best method of dealing with the 
difficulty.” 
Your Delegate followed with remarks on the “ Financial 
Position of our Local Societies.” 
“ A few days ago,” he said, “ he examined the balance-sheets 
of a dozen of our Affiliated Societies, taking only those which he 
knew to be doing good local work. A bare majority appeared 
to be in a sound financial position, but the rest were not so. 
Two had transferred funds from their life-membership account 
to provide for their ordinary expenditure, one of these trans¬ 
ferring ,£10 and leaving <£5 due to the Treasurer. One had 
spent <£10 more than its income and had a balance of <£10, so 
