49° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Neville's Court, Trinity College. 



means more to a speaker than it does with us, at least during the last 

 fifteen years since the tendency to segregate into special scientific 

 societies has been so marked. It would be difficult to bring together 

 in x\merica any such group of mathematicians and physicists as sat 

 with Professor Lamb on the platform on Thursday morning while he 

 read his presidential address before section A. The vote of thanks after 

 the address was moved by Mr. Balfour and seconded by Lord Kelvin. 

 Nevertheless admitting all this, it is evident to one who listens to 

 papers in both associations that the essential difference in the charac- 

 ter of the papers presented at the two meetings lies in the difference 

 in scientific training and habits of scientific work in England and in 

 America; and one can not but be struck with the fact that the scien- 

 tific training and methods of work in America are far more German 

 than English. While the addresses in American scientific societies 

 lack the philosophic interest and charm which characterize many of 

 those given before the British Association, the authors of these papers 

 are trained to go more directly at their problems, laying bare the diffi- 

 culties and even the failures of the method or the process, but passing 

 on to some point of vantage. One finds in many English scientific 

 papers a clever use of words and terms; a tendency to philosophize 

 instead of doing the hard work of investigation; a disposition to deal 

 charmingly, sometimes half humorously, with the results and observa- 

 tions costing great labor; and in the end the whole subject loft in a 

 sort of agreeable haze in which one seems to have traveled a long dis- 

 tance without going any whither. The method of attack adopted is 



