British Association Procedure

Abstract

I SHOULD be sorry if Prof. Lodge or anyone else should suspect me of a desire to interfere with the opportunities which are afforded by meetings of the British Association for friendly intercourse between workers, and especially between the younger scientific men and their seniors, for I feel that those opportunities constitute one of the chief advantages of attending the meetings. But with the desire to avoid waste of time in merely journal business I should prefer that each Sectional Committee should be reduced to a small executive body to whom could be entrusted the task of arranging the programme for each day, and in a preliminary way other business, such as the selection of committees to carry out suggested new researches. The appointment of such Committees and the other business would be accomplished quickly enough at a meeting of the whole Section, and then opportunity would be given to all the members for expressing an opinion or offering suggestions. The plan at present adopted is neither one thing nor the other. The Sectional Committees are too large for the despatch of business, and yet may not include every desirable member of the Section. The demand for election to which I referred comes from a certain class of people whose single purpose is served when they get their names printed on the list.