WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 53
Besides the onerous share in the corporate work of the society
involved in the payment of his or her subscription, every
member should try to contribute in some way to the original
scientific work of the society. To encourage this I would
suggest the taking a leaf out of the book of some of our religious
bodies in increasing the number of office-holders. How would
it be if three members are interested in some one scientific topic,
such as erratic boulders, brambles, or manifestations of the
aurora, to constitute them into a Committee with a Secretary—
two to form a quorum—or if there are five or sis members of our
Club resident say at Braintree to constitute them into a local
Reporting Committee ?
In order to secure the local and special personal interest—
or, I would rather say, enthusiasm—and work which we require,
I am sure we cannot do better than continue and expand the
practice of peripatetic meetings in various centres of our area —
especially of meetings extending over more than one day—which
we have long carried out ; and I think that this practice requires
to be extended into other counties. It is not perhaps until the
second day of such a meeting that the town visited awakes to
the presence of a body of scientific workers in their midst, and
then the danger arises that with newly aroused enthusiasm and
hospitality they may—with the best possible intentions—convert
a scientific meeting into a picnic. It is, however, because we
can hardly hope to secure Committees, even of three, in many
outlying villages that I think a County Association should not
only enrol affiliated societies as members—all that has, for
instance, been as yet done by the South-Eastern Union—but
should also enrol individual members—with, of course, any
provision as to difference of voting and other privileges that may
seem desirable. Besides the estimated 50,000 members of the
Natural History Societies of the country there must, I am sure,
be many isolated workers, and the want of communication
between such workers and between neighbouring societies must
lead to a good deal of overlap in work, of misdirected, and there-
fore of practically wasted, energy.
I am afraid that many members of this Club may—like
other people—be keenly alive to the apathy of the people in
Norfolk and Suffolk whilst looking at Essex through the rose-
coloured spectacles of self-satisfaction. I would remind such
members that if we are to have adequate national censuses on