NATURAL SCIENCE: 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 44. Vol VII. OCTOBER, 1895. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



The British Association and the President's Address. 



IN England we are very civil to political reputation. Last year the 

 brilliant phrases and epigrammatic eloquence of Lord Salisbury 

 caused a tendency to overrate the scientific value of his address. 

 The president of this year is not a famous politician, and his name is 

 associated with no scientific work that has tickled the ears of the 

 leader-writers; and so in the newspapers, from which most of us take 

 our daily prejudices, there is a tendency to underrate the Association. 

 We are inclined to think, however, that Sir Douglas Galton's quiet 

 review of the history of the British Association is a document of 

 considerable value. It is true, as the newspapers say, that there are 

 many congresses now, and that the Association is but one among 

 them. Still, it is the parent of most of them, and it has played a 

 large part in directing the attention of a lethargic public to the pro- 

 gress and advantages of scientific inquiry. Moreover, as the 

 president showed, the Association has had a direct influence upon 

 the progress of inquiry by the reports it has issued from time to time. 

 These have systematised work in hand and have had great influence 

 in directing the course of its progress. Sir Douglas Galton has had 

 so long an experience in the working of the Association that he could 

 speak of its history and achievements with an intimate authority 

 possessed by few. 



Ether. 



The president of the mathematical and physical section dealt with 

 some of the ultimate problems of science. At present, our knowledge 

 of matter and motion consists of little more than a series of empirical 

 laws. " A statement of a law," said Professor Hicks, and his words 

 cannot be pleasant reading for the good Duke of Argyle, " is either a 

 confession of ignorance or a mnemonic convenience. It is the latter 



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