INAUGURAL ADDRESS BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 495 



The general business of our meetings consists, 

 first, in receiving and discussing communications 

 upon scientific subjects at the various sections 

 into which our body is divided, with discussions 

 thereon ; secondly, in distributing, under the ad- 

 vice of our Committee of Recommendations, the 

 funds arising from the subscriptions of members 

 and associates ; and, thirdly, in electing a council 

 upon whom devolves the conduct of our affairs 

 until the next meeting. 



The communications to the sections are of 

 two kinds, viz., papers from individuals, and re- 

 ports from committees. 



As to the subject-matter of the papers, noth- 

 ing which falls within the range of natural knowl- 

 edge, as partitioned among our sections, can be 

 considered foreign to the purposes of the Asso- 

 ciation ; and even many applications of science, 

 when viewed in reference to their scientific basis, 

 may properly find a place in our proceedings. So 

 numerous, however, are the topics herein com- 

 prised, so easy the transition beyond these lim- 

 its, that it has been thought necessary to confine 

 ourselves within this range, lest the introduction 

 of other matters, however interesting to indi- 

 vidual members, should lead to the sacrifice of 

 more important subjects. As to the form of the 

 communications, while it is quite true that every 

 scientific conclusion should be based upon sub- 

 stantial evidence, every theory complete before 

 being submitted for final adoption, it is not the 

 less desirable that even tentative conclusions and 

 hypothetical principles, when supported by suffi- 

 cient prima-facie evidence, and enunciated in 

 such a manner as to be clearly apprehended, 

 should find room for discussion at our sectional 

 meetings. Considering, however, our limitations 

 of time and the varied nature of our audience, it 

 would seem not inappropriate to suspend, men- 

 tally if not materially, over the doors of our sec- 

 tion-rooms, the Frenchman's dictum, that no sci- 

 entific theory " can be considered complete until 

 it is so clear that it can be explained to the first 

 man you meet in the street." 



Among the communications to the sections un- 

 doubtedly the most important, as a rule, are the 

 reports ; that is to say, documents issuing from 

 specially-appointed committees, some of which 

 have been recipients of the grants mentioned 

 above. These reports are in the main of two 

 kinds : First, accounts of observations carried on 

 for a series of years, and intended as records of 

 information on the special subjects ; such, for in- 

 stance, have been those made by the Kew Com- 

 mittee, by the Committees on Luminous Meteors, 



on British Rainfall, on the Speed of Steamships, 

 on Underground Temperature, on the Explora- 

 tion of Certain Geological Caverns, etc. These 

 investigations, frequently originating in the en- 

 ergy and special qualifications of an individual, 

 but conducted under the control of a committee, 

 have in many cases been continued from year to 

 year, until either the object has been fully at- 

 tained or the matter has passed into the hands 

 of other bodies, which have thus been led to 

 recognize an inquiry into these subjects as part 

 and parcel of their appropriate functions. The 

 second class is one which is perhaps even more 

 peculiar to the Association, viz., the reports on 

 the progress and present state of some main 

 topics of science. Among these may be in- 

 stanced the early reports on Astronomy, on Op- 

 tics, on the Progress of Analysis ; aud later, 

 those on Electrical Resistance and on Tides ; 

 that of Prof. G. G. Stokes on Double Refraction; 

 that of Prof. H. J. Smith on the Theory of Num- 

 bers ; that of Mr. Russell on Hyperelliptic Tran- 

 scendents, and others. On this head Prof. Carey 

 Foster, in his address to the Mathematical and 

 Physical Section at our meeting last year, made 

 some excellent recommendations, to which, how- 

 ever, I need not at present more particularly re- 

 fer, as the result of them will be duly laid before 

 the section in the form of the report from a com- 

 mittee to whom they were referred. It will be 

 sufficient here to add that the wide extension of 

 the sciences in almost every branch, and the 

 consequent specialization of the studies of each 

 individual, have rendered the need for such re- 

 ports more than ever pressing, and, if the course 

 of true science should still run smooth, it is 

 probable that the need will increase rather than 

 diminish. 



If time and space had permitted, I should 

 have further particularized the committees, occa- 

 sionally appointed, on subjects connected with 

 education. But I must leave this theme for some 

 future president, and content myself with pointing 

 out that the British Association alone among sci- 

 entific societies concerns itself directly with these 

 questions, and is open to appeals for counsel and 

 support from the great teaching body of the 

 country. 



One of the principal methods by which this 

 Association materially promotes the advancement 

 of science, and consequently one of its most im- 

 portant functions, consists in grants of money 

 from its own income in aid of special scientific 

 researches. The total amount so laid out during 

 the forty-seven years of our existence has been 



