286 NOTES ON THE CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES.
Prof. Herdman discussed the difficulties of the question,
and said that, as a matter of history, every attempt at federation
made by the Liverpool Geological and Biological Societies had
ended in failure. Office-bearers in active Societies of good
standing were, as a rule, opposed to federation, and if there
were one subscription to federated Societies the income of each
individual Society would be reduced. Dr. R. H. Mill, on the
other hand, stated that the "East of Scotland Union of
Naturalists' Societies" was very successful, and that the
Perthshire Society of Natural Science was one of the best of
these Local Societies, its Museum being one of the sights of
Perth. These Societies meet in different towns each year, have
joint excursions, and are so satisfactorily related as to give him
great faith in the importance of union. He thought there
should be a better result from the action of the Corresponding
Societies Committee than from any other agency, and wished
that some stronger action had been taken than was indicated in
its Report.
Other speakers urged that there would be a difficulty in
carrying the idea out, many Societies fancying that they would
lose more or less of their identity in union. Mr. Hopkinson, on
the contrary, argued that federation did not imply sacrifice of
individuality.
The general impression imparted by the discussion to our
mind is, that the question of federation is not so simple nor are
plans for its adoption so easily to be carried out as some writers
and speakers would contend. In our opinion the best results
would be obtained by the establishment of a really strong society
in each county or larger district, and occasional meetings for dis-
cussion and promotion of unity of action between neighbouring
societies, or those pursuing a certain line of work. Most active
societies suffer rather from a lack of funds necessary for carrying
on investigations which they know to be necessary, than from
ignorance of what should be done. If county people would
adequately support their own scientific and antiquarian local
societies, plenty of good work would be accomplished, and the
various and somewhat bewildering suggestions put forward for
the guidance of societies would stand a chance of being con-
sidered and acted upon, instead of suffering neglect from the
sheer want of the funds often absolutely necessary for carrying
on continuous and systematic investigations.