CHAPTER XV 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



Its function and merits My connection with and indebtedness to it 



Sir William Grove 



I HAVE been connected with the British Associa- 

 tion more or less intimately during many years, 

 four times as President of a Section or " Department," 

 once as deliverer of a Lecture, a member of its Council 

 almost from my return from South Africa, then from 

 1863 to 1867 as its General Secretary, and afterwards 

 as an official member of its Council. 



The Association affords what is often the most 

 appropriate means of ventilating new ideas. It can 

 create a Committee with or without a grant of money, 

 giving to its proposer the title either of Chairman or 

 Secretary, which clothes him with an authority that 

 an unknown individual would lack, when making 

 inquiries of public bodies at home or abroad. It 

 also provides him with colleagues to discuss and 

 criticise results before they are finally published. A 

 good example of these advantages may be found in 

 the Report of the Anthropometric Committee, which 

 has afforded standard data up to the present time, for 

 the chief physical characteristics of the inhabitants of 



the British Isles. The hard work carried on in its 



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