REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. Corresponding Societies.-Report of the Committee, consisting of Professor R. MELDOLA (Chairman), Mr. T. V. HOLMES (Secretary), Mr. FRANCIS GALTON, Sir DOUGLAS GALTON, Sir RAWSON RAWSON, Mr. G. J. SYMONS, Dr. J. G. GARSON, Sir JOHN EVANS, Mr. J. HOPKINSON, Professor T. G. BONNEY, Mr. W. WHITAKER, Professor E. B. POULTON, Mr. CUTHBERT PEEK, and Rev. Canon H. B. TRISTRAM. THE Corresponding Societies Committee of the British Association beg leave to submit to the General Committee the following Report of the proceedings of the Conference held at Ipswich. The Council nominated Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., Chairman, Dr. J. G. Garson, Vice-Chairman, and Mr. T. V. Holmes, Secretary to the Ipswich Conference. These nominations were confirmed by the General Committee at the meeting held at Ipswich on Wednesday, September 11. The meetings of the Conference were held at the Co-operative Hall, Ipswich, on Thursday, September 12, and Tuesday, September 17, at 3.30 P.M. The following Corresponding Societies nominated as delegates to represent them at the Ipswich meeting : Belfast Natural History and Philosophi- Alexander Tate, M.Inst.C.E. cal Society. Berwickshire Naturalists' Club G. P. Hughes. Birmingham Natural History and Philo- J. Kenward, F.S.A., Assoc.M.Inst. sophical Society. Buchan Field Club . C.E. Burton-on-Trent Natural History and James G. Wells. Chesterfield and Midland Counties Insti- M. H. Mills, F.G.S., M.Inst.C.E. Federated Institution of Mining Engi- M. H. Mills, F.G.S., M.Inst.C.E. Liverpool Geological Society. Manchester Geographical Society Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society Northamptonshire Natural History So- Perthshire Society of Natural Science J. Barclay Murdoch. John Hopkinson, F.L.S. His Honour Deemster Gill. E. Dickson, F.G.S. Eli Sowerbutts, F.R.G.S. H. B. Woodward, F.G.S. C. A. Markham, F.R.Met.Soc. A. S. Reid, M.A., F.G.S. Warwickshire Naturalists' and Archæolo- W. Andrews, F.G.S. Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Rev. J. O. Bevan, M.A. IPSWICH, FIRST CONFERENCE, SEPTEMBER 12, 1895. The Corresponding Societies Committee were represented by Professor R. Meldola, Mr. G. J. Symons, Mr. Hopkinson, and Mr. T. V. Holmes. (Secretary). The Chairman of the Conference opened the proceedings with the following address:- Address of the Chairman, G. J. SYMONS, F.R.S. Just as with the great Association under whose auspices we meet, so with the numerous and intellectual bodies which you represent-each has a double duty. The duty to humanity of doing its best to interpret truthfully the lessons of the world in which we live, so that by increasing knowledge future generations may learn to make better use of its marvellous stores, and perchance repair some of the waste which has gone on in the past, and which is still going on. Our other duty is to advance the cause of the various bodies with which we are connected. Of course you know this as well as I do, but in these days when a universal genius has become an impossibility, and progress can be effected only by limiting one's work to some corner of the field of science, there is great danger of specialisation leading to forgetfulness of generalisation, and of what is the end of all research. You all know the necessity for intercommunication, which in the early years of this century rendered the formation of the British Association imperative, and you know how that need was met. I hold that this Conference and the work which it is doing are an equal necessity of the present time. How could workers in any branch of science know all that was being done by local effort without our index to your proceedings? The world is the better for the knowledge which you gain being rendered generally accessible, and both the British Association and the local societies gain the strength which arises from federation. The Council having nominated me to the honourable office of Chairman, my first and most pleasant duty is to offer you a hearty welcome; and my second, which is a somewhat personal one, is to ask you to remember that it is not given to every chairman mentally to photograph every one present, and to remember not merely every face, but the name of its owner; it is one thing to be Chairman whom every one can see and recognise, it is quite another thing for the Chairman to remember all the faces before him. It is therefore from no lack of courtesy, but from the physiological necessity, that I request that each delegate will preface his remarks by mentioning his name, and that of the Society which he represents. I have already intimated my opinion that if a man wishes to do good work for science he must take some field, or corner of a field, and labour there. I have only a corner-rainfall, but I think that I know enough about some other parts of the field of meteorology to point out spots where good work could be done and work precisely suitable for the members of your societies. Of course in the few minutes during which I may detain you I cannot enter into details, but there is such an organisation as the Post Office. I do answer as many letters as I can, and an extra twenty or thirty will make no appreciable difference. Now, to take up the syllabus : 1. Meteorological observations in general.-Do not encourage the keeping of records from any but good instruments, properly placed. A hard frost occurs, and forthwith there is a crop of wonderful records, some from thermometers badly placed, some from thermometers which never were good, some from good thermometers allowed to go wrong. An incorrect statement is much worse than none at all; see to it then that such records as you publish are worthy of your Society. I say no more on this head because the Royal Meteorological Society has published, almost at cost price (1s.), an amply illustrated pamphlet, Hints to Observers,' which will show any one what, and when, and how, observations ought to be made. It is by no means necessary to start with an elaborate and costly set of instruments; but see to it that the instruments which you do have are good, and that no records except from good and tested instruments, properly placed, ever appear in your volumes. 2. Sea and river temperature.—I have interpolated the words 'and river' because I ought to have put them in the syllabus originally, and because my attention has been drawn to the subject by an excellent summary of Dr. Adolf Forster's work upon the temperatures of European rivers, by Mr. H. N. Dickson, given in the September number of 'The Geographical Journal.' You will remember that for a few years there was a Committee of the British Association studying river temperature; and I am sure that if your societies took up the investigation, a fresh committee could be appointed, so that we should not need to go to a German book to learn the details of the temperature of the Thames. The work is easy, healthy, and inexpensive. Easy, because it merely involves a walk to a bridge, a jetty, or a per-head, the lowering of the thermometer into the water, entering the reading, and carrying it home again; healthy, from the regularity of the walk; and inexpensive, because the verified K. O. thermometer and its copper case, cord, and everything, could be sent to any part of the country complete for a sovereign. 3. Earth temperature at shallow and at great depths. The second half of this subject has often been brought before you, because the Underground Temperature Committee is the oldest one of the British Association. It, as you know, deals chiefly with the temperature in mines and in deep shafts and wells. Any one who can obtain good records at depths of, or exceeding, 1,000 feet can do useful work, but I am doubtful whether much more can be learned in this country by observations at depths between 10 feet and 1,000 feet than we already know. I insert the words, 'in this country,' because I do not think that the law of decrease for tropical and for arctic localities is known. Unfortunately we have no representatives of such localities here, or we might sow a productive seed. Observations at shallow depths-say 3 inches to 10 feet-are becoming less rare than they were, and the time is not distant when the law of temperature variation for shallow depths will be known with sufficient accuracy. That much has yet to be ascertained, many persons learned by burst waterpipes last winter. I mention this as an illustration of the application of scientific records to the welfare of mankind, not as an indication that I consider the mischief to have been wholly produced by soil temperature; but I must not digress. 4. Phenological work.—I am afraid that this word 'phenological' has not proved very acceptable. I once heard an inquiry what meteorology had to do with prisons-and it turned out that the querist had overlooked the 'h,' and reading it as 'penological' thought that it must have something to do with punishment. However, I need not tell you that it means the laws of the life history of plants and animals; in fact, an endeavour to record the progress of the seasons not by thermometers or by rain-gauges, but by plants, trees, insects, and birds, and the study of the relations between the indications of the natural history phenomena and those of the instruments and efforts to separate cause and effect. It has always seemed to me a class of work peculiarly adapted for the local scientific societies, for their Botanical and Entomological Sections. The Royal Meteorological Society has spent a considerable sum in promoting this work, and in the hands of Mr. E. Mawley it is progressing. Personally, I am not competent to pronounce any criticism upon the work beyond this, that Mr. Mawley has devoted himself to it, and has produced tables and diagrams of great interest. But I do say this, that I think that the naturalists should either co-operate heartily with the meteorologists, or else should show that the meteorologists are attempting the impossible or the undesirable. 5. Early meteorological records. It is a prevalent idea (especially with executors) that old manuscript books of observations are useless. I have every reason to believe that a long deceased relative of my own assisted in burning part of the oldest record of the rainfall in this country—that begun at Townley in Lancashire in 1677; and what she did at the beginning of this century has been done by scores of others, and will be until mankind are much more thoughtful and much better informed than they yet are. But I am not addressing you in the capacity of executors, but as representatives of large local bodies, many of them with museums and libraries; and I invite you to see to it that any such records that you have are properly cared for. Another suggestion-the practice is fortunately rapidly spreading of publishing the early parochial registers. If each society represented here would make it a rule to go through all such publications as have been issued within its area, and print in chronological order all the notes on earthquakes, storms, frosts, floods, &c., which can be collected, much good would be done. Of course this can be done for unpublished as well as for published records. 6. Records of river and well levels.-The second half of this subject has so often been brought before you by Mr. De Rance, the Secretary of the British Association Committee on Underground Water, that I need merely mention it. The first part refers to a subject involved in my next and last heading, and to which, therefore, I will at once proceed. 7. Records of floods and the placing of flood-marks. It is very strange that Englishmen (Britons I had better say, for our Irish and Scotch friends are equally bad) are so nearly the worst nation in Europe for looking after their rivers. I do not refer to fouling by sewage and by manufacturing refuse, or to defective engineering-I do not know where we stand in those respects-but I refer to records of river levels, to scale marks on the bridges, to automatic recorders of their rise and fall, to arrangements for warning the owners of low-lying property when floods are probable, and to the classification, levelling, and publication in full, of particulars as to old flood-level marks, and the due marking of new ones when floods occur. I do not suggest that your societies should themselves do all this, but that they should bring it before their Parish and County Councils, and couple their request with the offer of any assistance in their power. Of course the suggestion will be received politely, the great cost will be urged, and in many cases nothing will be done. Forgive my detaining you to hear a little true story. Years ago I suggested such arrangements to an influential man in York-nothing was done. 1892 York had a flood, not so bad as some on record, but one which cost the Corporation a very large sum; they paid it, and that steed having been stolen they have figuratively locked the stable door by adopting all the arrangements suggested above. If the Councils do not take your advice, they must remember that your attendance will be on their minutes, to be referred to when their town or district suffers as York did. In The Chairman then read a letter which he had received from Mr. R. Ashworth, of the Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society, who regretted his inability to attend and sent some notes showing what meteorological work was being done in his district. Mr. T. V. Holmes (Secretary) wished to make a few remarks with regard to the list of papers read before the Corresponding Societies and appended to the Report of the Corresponding Societies Committee. He hoped that the secretaries of the various local societies, in sending in their lists, would be very careful where the paper, from its title, might belong to either of two sections, to group it with that section to which it had most affinity. Examination had in some cases caused a paper to be classed with another section than that originally given. It was very necessary also that the names of papers sent in should not be those of mere popular lectures, but of investigations of a more or less original character. It had occasionally happened that when reference had to be made to some paper on the list in order to ascertain its true nature it had been found that the paper in question had not been sent to Burlington House. No paper would in future be placed on the list published by the British Association unless it could be consulted at the Office. The Chairman then invited discussion on the subjects mentioned in his address. |