178 NOTES ON REPORT OF CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES
mentioning that some months ago I learned that a Field Club, once
scientifically active and useful, had recently become so effete
through frequent indulgence in gratuitous meals, that excursions not
including tea at some big house were attended by but four or five
members, including the president and director ! Wherever the picnic
spirit is allowed to prevail in a Field Club, the scientific spirit neces-
sarily declines, and gastronomic members should bear in mind that
with the loss of scientific status invitations to tea also disappear.
The subject of Local Museums was discussed chiefly by Canon
Tristram. He thought they should contain, solely or mainly, local
products. He mentioned that many museums had gone to utter
decay for want of an endowment. Those at Newcastle, York,
Manchester, Liverpool, and Norwich were all endowed, while that at
Lynn, in Norfolk, for want of an endowment was mouldering away.
Museums were, he added, of little use without a curator, and local
societies should try to promote interest in the local museum so that
an endowment fund, to allow of a curator being kept, might be
raised by the help of wealthy residents and the County Council.
This subject is one that will probably be discussed at much greater
length during the meeting of the British Association at Nottingham,
next year.
T. V. HOLMES,
Hon. Secretary Corresponding Societies Committee;
Delegate, Essex Field Club.
I add a list of those British Association Committees of whose exist-
ence the Corresponding Societies should be more especially aware :—
Corresponding Societies Committee. Chairman. — Professor R. Meldola.
Secretary.—Mr. T. V. Holmes. 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, Mr. W. Topley, Mr. E, B.
Poulton, Mr. Cuthbert Peek, and Rev. Canon H. B. Tristram.
To organise an Ethnographical Survey of the United Kingdom.
Chairman.—Mr, Francis Galton. Secretary.—Mr. E. W. Brabrook. Dr. J. G.
Garson, Professor A C. Haddon, and Dr. Joseph Anderson.
Ascertaining and recording the Localities in the British Islands in
which evidence of the existence of Prehistoric Inhabitants of the
Country are found. Chairman.—Sir John Lubbock. Secretary.—Mr. J. W.
Davis. Sir John Evans, Professor Boyd Dawkins, Dr. R. Munro, Mr. Pengelly,
Dr. Hicks, and Professor R. Meldola.
To investigate the Physical Deviations from the Normal among
Children in Elementary and other Schools. Chairman.—Sir Douglas
Galton. Secretary.—Dr. F. Warner. Mr. G. W. Bloxam, Mr. E. W. Brabrook,
and Dr. J. G. Carson.