THE CLUB AND ITS WORK.
15
exhibition or for the faunal series, which they are able to obtain or
to spare fro mtheir own collections. For such specimens (especially
from Essex localities), the Club makes an urgent appeal.
The Club's Library (which, though extensive and valuable,
has been neglected somewhat, in recent years, owing to various
unavoidable causes) will require much labour on the part of the
Honorary Librarian before arrears of work can be overtaken; but
here, again, the work is well in hand and progressing most satis-
factorily.
Mr, Reader, the Hon. Librarian, is now engaged in arranging the
books. When that is done, a card catalogue will be compiled, and the
volumes will be available once more for issue to members, this having
been suspended for the time being. The Council hopes that, before
the end of the present year, all the books will be re-arranged and
catalogued and that fresh regulations for their issue to members
will have been drawn up and approved.
The Pictorial and Photographic Survey of Essex will require
careful attention before the work can be carried on widely and system-
atically, and this attention the Managing Committee is prepared
to give. The assistance of all Essex Photographers, amateur and
professional, is earnestly requested. All communications should be
addressed to the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Victor Taylor, The Essex
Museum of Natural History, Romford Road, Stratford.
Turning, next, to matters less closely connected with the Club's
every-day work: the Council considers that the time has now
arrived when a comprehensive and detailed
General Index to all the Publications of the Club, issued
during the first quarter-of-a-century of its existence, should be pre-
pared and published. The vast mass of scientific information, chiefly
local, contained in the 6,000 and odd pages issued by the Club is
largely unknown and inaccessible to scientific workers, both in
Essex and elsewhere, and must continue to be so until a systematic
General Index is available. The expense of compiling and printing
such an Index would exceed, probably, £50, and the Club would
be unable, therefore, to meet it out of its ordinary revenue; but the
volume can be published, it is thought, at very small expense to the
Club, if issued by Subscription among members and others. This
course was followed, a few years since, by the Essex Archaeological
Society with the General Index to its Transactions, which are far
less voluminous than the Publications of the Club.
Another enterprise on which the Club desires to embark as soon
as the necessary financial and other arrangements can be made is
the establishment of a small
Station for Biological Research, preferably one which may
be moved from one part of the county to another. This would form
a centre and workshop for biological and faunistic research in con-
nection with the Club's Museums. Mr. William Cole has suggested*
that such an enterprise might be—indeed, ought to be—subsidised by
the Local Authorities, such as the County Council (preferably through
its Education Committee) and the Kent and Essex Sea-Fisheries
Committee. A comparatively-small sum from such a source would
* "A Suggestion with Respect to Exploration and Registration Work for County and Local
Societies " (see Essex Nat., xiii, pp. 183-190, and Rep. of Brit. Assoc, 1903).