THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



5G7 



ten ! That, perhaps, is a matter of taste ; but, in 

 any case, when all intellectual progress is seen 

 every day more clearly to depend upon the sys- 

 tematic interpretation of experience and the 

 resolute repression of all incongruous elements 

 of speculation, it is desirable that we should gaze 

 in the direction in which alone experience can 



enlighten us, and accept realities instead of 

 dreams. The skepticism which rejects the phan- 

 toms is less paralyzing than the skepticism which, 

 when it expresses itself frankly, rejects realities, 

 and, when it does not, attempts to mystify us by 

 a jargon which hopelessly confounds the two. 

 — Fortnightly Review. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



AT a gathering like that of the British Asso- 

 ciation, which this year revisits Plymouth 

 after a long absence, the value of the work done 

 in the several sections is in truth quite indepen- 

 dent of what may happen at the general meet- 

 ings, which have a comparatively spectacular 

 character, and whose object is to provide a sort 

 of medium between the intimate scientific work 

 of the Association and the diffused interest of the 

 educated public. At the same time this object 

 is an important one, and the remembrance of the 

 proceedings left in the minds of outsiders in any 

 given year — and consequently the amount of 

 support beyoud the pale of the properly scientific 

 world which may be counted on to furnish the 

 sinews of war — must depend in great measure 

 on the impression made by the opeuing address. 

 It is a thankless office to have to record, as we 

 are now compelled to do, that this time the im- 

 pression was not a very favorable one. In one 

 word, the president's discourse was much too 

 technical for the occasion and the audience. It 

 would be ungenerous to cast any personal re- 

 sponsibility for this result on the eminent spe- 

 cialist who was chosen for the office. The gift 

 of interpreting the results of highly-special re- 

 searches for the benefit of those who are not pre- 

 pared beforehand by special knowledge is by no 

 means a common one — in fact, it is itself a spe- 

 cialty which very few have mastered*; for which 

 reason people who are anxious to parade them- 

 selves as amateurs in science are much in the habit 

 of cheapening it. The notion that Prof. Huxley 

 and Prof. Tyndall are mere popularizers — because, 

 forsooth, they can expound as well as discover — 

 has almost attained the rank of a vulgar error. 

 Some remarks to that effect were heard at this 

 very meeting in the Guildhall of Plymouth. 

 Those who imagine that such remarks give them 

 a scientific air may be assured that there is no 

 more certain stamp of a narrow and superficial 

 habit of mind. However, we cannot all go to 



Corinth ; a specialist, however eminent, has not 

 necessarily the gift of large and lucid exposition ; 

 and if he has not, the temptation to take refuge 

 in the technical details of his own province is 

 almost irresistible. Dr. Allen Thomson was him- 

 self aware of the danger, and made a sort of 

 apology by anticipation. As far as he is person- 

 ally concerned, the apology must be fully ac- 

 cepted. He began with a general review of the 

 history, position, and prospect, of the Darwinian 

 theory, which left nothing to be desired. This 

 first part of the discourse, though not strikingly 

 brilliant in form, was an excellent specimen of 

 a kind of scientific literature of which England 

 has especial reason to be proud. It was quite 

 fair, again, for the president, being what he is, to 

 lay special stress on the evidences of Darwinism 

 in biology ; and a passing notice of the current 

 controversy on spontaneous generation was in 

 every way fitting. Here Dr. Thomson declared 

 himself in favor of those who hold that no pro- 

 duction of really new organic life has been shown 

 to take place under the present conditions — in 

 other words, he adopted the germ-theory ; at the 

 same time he was careful to point out that the 

 problem of the first origin of life on the earth 

 remains quite open, and that no conjecture yet 

 advanced docs more than put back the difficulty. 

 So far all was well ; but presently the turn of the 

 discourse became further specialized, and the 

 audience found themselves listening to a severely 

 technical lecture on embryology. Its main pur- 

 port w r as clear enough, indeed, to those who knew 

 in a general way what to expect. To others we 

 think it must have been obscure. The presi- 

 dent's speech was now of blastoderm, ectoderm, 

 and endoderm, epiblast and hypoblast ; and the 

 less physiological part of the audience began to 

 wonder if they had not strayed by mistake into 

 the biological section. Ignorance being the 

 mother of fear, there were signs of alarm lest 

 something improper should be coming ; one or 



