The Chairman. (MR. CHARLES BOOTH), in closing the discussion, said:  I myself entirely agree with what Mr Robertson has said as to the extreme difficulty of bringing investigations of the kind referred to, to practical conclusions—­practical points.  Practical work at present needs the most attention.  I perhaps am too old to do it, but I feel the attraction of that kind of work, and that was one reason I was sorry Mr Loch had to leave before we could hear what he might have to say.  The description I have given of London does seem to be a foggy labyrinth I agree, but nevertheless I cannot but think that we do require a complete conception if we are to do the definite work of putting different people in their proper places in an organic whole, such as a city is.  I do not think we can do without it, and I regard the paper of this evening as an important contribution [Page:  128] to that complete conception which I feel we need.  I should like each worker and thinker to have and to know his place in the scheme of civic improvement; and I think it perfectly possible for every man to know what it is that he is trying to do, what contribution it is that he ought to give to that joint life which is called here civics, which is the life of a city and the life in the city.  One man cannot possibly concentrate it all in himself.  Within a society such as the Sociological Society a general scheme is possible in which each individual and each society shall play its acknowledged and recognised part.  It does not follow that the work done in one city can apply as an example to another.  Individuality has too strong a hold; but each town may work out something for itself.  I have been very much interested in the work which Mr. Rowntree has done in York, on which he was kind enough to consult me.  He entered upon it on quite other grounds from mine, but so far as the ground was common between him and me we tried to have a common basis.  Those of you who have not read Mr. Horsfall’s volumes on Manchester would do well to do so.  Prof.  Geddes gave us a vivid picture of a larger regional unit which culminates geographically in the city as industrial climax.  In his particular instance he referred, I take, to Dundee.  In Dundee there is at this moment an inquiry being started, and I am in communication with those who are doing it, and I hope it will add something to the completeness of the picture we have of that city.  In Dundee they have excessive difficulties in respect to crowding and female labour.  What I suggested was, that they should make a special study of such circumstances as are special to Dundee.  Labour there is very largely sack-making and jute manufacture, and there is a great deal of girl labour; and that is one of the special subjects that will be considered in that inquiry.