SCIENCE IN RELATION TO THE ARTS. 49 



Darwin, whose bold conceptions, patient labor, and genial mind made 

 him almost a type of unsurpassed excellence, telegraphic news reached 

 Cambridge, just a month ago, to the effect that our Honorary Secre- 

 tary, Professor F. M. Balfour, had lost his life during an attempted 

 ascent of the Aiguille Blanche de Penteret. Although only thirty 

 years of age, few men have w T on distinction so rapidly and so deserv- 

 edly. After attending the lectures of Michael. Foster, he completed 

 his studies of biology under Dr. Anton Dohrn at the Zoological Sta- 

 tion of Naples in 1875. In 1878 he was elected a Fellow, and in No- 

 vember last a member of Council of the Royal Society, when he was 

 also awarded one of the Royal Medals for his embryological researches. 

 Within a short interval of time Glasgow University conferred on him 

 their honorary degree of LL. D., he was elected President of the Cam- 

 bridge Philosophical Society, and, after having declined very tempting 

 offers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, he accepted a 

 professorship of Animal Morphology created for him by his own uni- 

 versity. Few men could have borne without hurt such a stream of 

 honorable distinctions, but in young Balfour genius and independence 

 of thought were happily blended with industry and personal modesty ; 

 these won for him the friendship, esteem, and admiration of all who 

 knew him. 



Since the days of the first meeting of the Association in York in 

 1831, great changes have taken place in the means at our disposal for 

 exchanging views, either personally or through the medium of type. 

 The creation of the railway system has enabled congenial minds to 

 attend frequent meetings of those special societies which have sprung 

 into existence since the foundation of the British Association, among 

 which I need only name here the Physic.il, Geographical, Meteorologi- 

 cal, Anthropological, and Linnsean, cultivating abstract science, and 

 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Naval Ar- 

 chitects, the Iron and Steel Institute, the Society of Telegraph Engi- 

 neers and Electricians, the Gas Institute, the Sanitary Institute, and 

 the Society of Chemical Industry, representing applied science. These 

 meet at frequent intervals in London, while others, having similar ob- 

 jects in view, hold their meetings at the university towns, and at other 

 centers of intelligence and industry throughout the country, giving 

 evidence of great mental activity, and producing some of those very 

 results which the founders of the British Association wished to see 

 realized. If we consider further the extraordinary development of 

 scientific journalism wdrich has taken place, it can not surprise us when 

 we meet with expressions of opinion to the effect that the British As- 

 sociation has fulfilled its mission, and should now yield its place to 

 those special societies it has served to call into existence. On the 

 other hand, it may be urged that the brilliant success of last year's 

 anniversary meeting, enhanced by the comprehensive address delivered 



VOL. XXII. 



