ANGLO-AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF HISTORIANS. 189
Dr. D. A. Chart of the Public Record Office of the six counties
of Northern Ireland pointed to an interesting record of twelve
years' research work under somewhat difficult conditions. He
stated that much information could be obtained from wills and
from deeds relating to Land Transactions, but as many tenants had
purchased their holdings many Estate Agencies had since
closed down.
On the same evening, July 8, a General Meeting was held
at which Dr. J. C. Merriam, President of the Carnegie Institu-
tion in Washington, delivered an address entitled "Methods of
research in the field of history in Middle America." This part
of Middle America is today inhabited by hundreds of thousands
of people in Yucatan and by a million persons in Guatemala.
These are the descendants of an aboriginal people, the Maya,
who in isolation from the old world had attained an advanced
state of civilization—judging from the ruins of their great
buildings which can compare with those of Egypt, Mesopotamia
or Greece—and their anthropological study, their language,
habits of life and social organization and their form of govern-
ment were now being investigated, and their story revealed.
It is claimed that their history is one of the outstanding achieve-
ments of mankind attained in isolation.
Professor W. M. MacMillan (of Witwatersrand) urged that a
special training in historical methods was necessary before
embarking on the administration of primitive people. Dr. F.
Barkenau suggested that research investigation of any value
should be undertaken by team work between archaeologists and
anthropologists. He attributed the conditions of the present
inhabitants of Central America to the influence of the Spaniards
rather than to the Indian.
The next meeting of the Local History Section was on the
morning of July 9 when papers were read by three speakers,
viz., Dr. H. C. Darby (Cambridge), Dr. R. A. Pelham (Birming-
ham) and Dr. L. Dudley Stamp (London) on "The geographical
basis (or background) of Local History," and especially upon
the influence of the physical environment upon the people. It
was maintained that there was a definite interaction between
the two. As we know today, a knowledge of the soil, rainfall,
win and sunshine—which includes the knowledge of climato-
logy—gives us the power to benefit health from a change of