498 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



them by the General Committee, at the instance 

 of the Committee of Recommendations, for de- 

 liberation and occasionally for action. With the 

 increasing activity of our body in general, and 

 more particularly with that of our various offi- 

 cers, these duties have of late years become more 

 varied and onerous than formerly ; nor is it to 

 be wished that they should diminish in either 

 variety or extent. 



Once more, questions beyond our own consti- 

 tution, and even beyond the scope of our own 

 immediate action, such as education, legislation 

 affecting either the promotion or the applications 

 of science to industrial and social life, which 

 have suggested themselves at our meetings, and 

 received the preliminary sanction of our Commit- 

 tee of Recommendations, are frequently referred 

 to our Council. These, and others which it is 

 unnecessary to particularize, whether discussed 

 in full council or in committees specially ap- 

 pointed by that body, render the duties of our 

 councilors as onerous as they are important. 



While the Government has at all times, but 

 in a more marked manner of late years, recog- 

 nized the Royal Society of London, with repre- 

 sentatives from the sister societies of Dublin and 

 of Edinburgh, as the body to which it should 

 look for counsel and advice upon scientific ques- 

 tions, it has still never shown itself indisposed to 

 receive and entertain any well-considered recom- 

 mendation from the British Association. Two 

 special causes have in all probability contributed 

 largely to this result : First, the variety of ele- 

 ments comprised by the Association, on account 

 of which its recommendations imply a more gen- 

 eral concurrence of scientific opinion than those 

 of any other scientific body. Secondly, the pe- 

 culiar fact that our period of maximum activity 

 coincides with that of minimum activity of other 

 scientific bodies is often of the highest impor- 

 tance. At the very time when the other bodies 

 are least able, we are most able, to give deliber- 

 ate consideration, and formal sanction, to recom- 

 mendations whether in the form of applications 

 to Government or otherwise which may arise. In 

 many of these time is an element so essential 

 that it is not too much to say that without the 

 intervention of the British Association many op- 

 portunities for the advancement of science, espe- 

 cially at the seasons in question, might have been 

 lost. The Government has, moreover, formally 

 recognized our scientific existence by appointing 

 our president for the time being a member of 

 the Government Fund Committee ; and the pub- 

 lic has added its testimony to our importance 



and utility by imposing upon our president and 

 officers a variety of duties, among which are con- 

 spicuous those which arise out of its very liberal 

 exercise of civic and other hospitality. 



Of the nature and functions of the presiden- 

 tial address this is perhaps neither the time nor 

 the place to speak ; but if I might for a moment 

 forget the purpose for which we are now assem- 

 bled, I would take the opportunity of reminding 

 those who have not attended many of our former 

 meetings, that our annual volumes contain a 

 long series of addresses on the progress of sci- 

 ence, from a number of our most eminent men, 

 to which there is perhaps no parallel elsewhere. 

 These addresses are perhaps as remarkable for 

 their variety in mode of treatment as for the 

 value of their subject-matter. Some of our 

 presidents, and especially those who officiated in 

 the earlier days of our existence, have passed in 

 review the various branches of science, and have 

 noted the progress made in each during the cur- 

 rent year. But, as the various sciences have de- 

 manded more and more special treatment on the 

 part of those who seriously pursue them, so have 

 the cases of individuals who can of their own 

 knowledge give anything approaching to a gen- 

 eral review become more and more rare. To this 

 may be added the fact that although no year is 

 so barren as to fail in affording sufficient crop 

 for a strictly scientific budget, or for a detailed 

 report of progress in research, yet one year is 

 more fertile than another in growths of sufficient 

 prominence to arrest the attention of the general 

 public, and to supply topics suitable for the ad- 

 dress. On these accounts, apparentl}', such a 

 presidential survey has ceased to be annual, and 

 has dropped into an intermittence of longer pe- 

 riod. Some presidents have made a scientific 

 principle, such as the time-element in natural 

 phenomena, or continuity, or natural selection, 

 the theme of their discourse, and have gathered 

 illustrations from various branches of knowledge. 

 Others, again, taking their own special subject as 

 a fundamental note, and thence modulating into 

 other kindred keys, have borne testimony to the 

 fact that no subject is so special as to be devoid 

 of bearing or of influence on many others. Some 

 have described the successive stages of even a 

 single but important investigation ; and while 

 tracing the growth of that particular item, and 

 of the ideas involved in it, have incidentally 

 shown to the outer world what manner of busi- 

 ness a serious investigation is. But there is hap- 

 pily no pattern or precedent which the president 

 is bound to follow ; both in range of subject- 



