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REPORT OF THE CLUB'S DELEGATE TO
THE CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF
CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES; BRITISH
ASSOCIATION MEETING IN LEICESTER,
1933.
BY D. J. SCOURFIELD, I.S.O., F.L.S., F.Z.S.
In accordance with the usual custom two meetings of the Delegates
of Corresponding Societies were held during the visit of the British Associa-
tion to Leicester in the early part of September, 1933. Dr. R. E.
Mortimer Wheeler, well known to us as the energetic Curator of the
London Museum, was the President of the Conference, and his opening
Address was devoted to the important subject of "The centralisation
and co-ordination of research in its relation to learned societies."
Dr. Wheeler, after pointing out some of the difficulties in co-ordinating
the efforts of the various scientific societies, in part due to the ingrained
national character of individual freedom, went on to review some of
the efforts now being made to prevent waste and overlapping in the
province with which he had closest contact, viz., Archaeology.
A generation or two ago archaeology was essentially an amateur accom-
plishment, cultivated mostly by the country gentry who formed the
nucleus of most of the local scientific societies. Some of the research
carried out was very good, although much was bad. At any rate, a
widespread sympathy for the study was maintained. The next advance
was inaugurated by the passing of the Ancient Monuments Act in 1882.
This introduced centralised State effort, which was still further increased
by the Acts of 1913 and 1931. With the parallel growth of museum
organisation a nucleus was thus created of what may best be called
professional archaeology, and this has had three important reactions, (1)
the Universities are devoting an increasing amount of attention to the
subject, (2) the older type of local society is undergoing a change by
reason of the widening gulf between the amateur and the professional,
and (3) the profession is liable to develop an excessive narrowness.
Dr. Wheeler illustrated the latter point by some quotations from
recent archaeological papers which he, an ardent archaeologist himself,
called obscurantist jargon and thought might best be described as hokum.
The remedy for this professional pedantry was evidently closer contact
and sympathy with the ordinary members of local societies and the
general public, which in itself would compel the scientist to a constant
simplification and valuation of his ideas.
As regards the effective co-operation within the actual limits of
organised science, Dr. Wheeler thought the aloofness of the central
societies in London and Edinburgh towards the local societies was detri-
mental to both. Something might be done perhaps to secure a partici-
pation of the great metropolitan societies in the proceedings of the local
societies, for there was abundant evidence that the gulf between them
was unnecessarily wide.
Nevertheless, a scheme of co-ordination, drafted by the Society of
Antiquaries, has been approved by the provincial societies in a Congress