Professor Forbes's Address to the British Association. 251 



appreciated, but by those who have had experience in the labour 

 of bringing together the substance of detached, though often 

 profound, papers in the extensive range of scientific periodicals 

 and academical collections. Yet so obvious was the utility of 

 the proposed undertaking, that, in the very infancy of the As- 

 sociation, there were found several distinguished individuals^ 

 and chiefly from the University of Cambridge, who had not 

 even been present at the first meeting, but who volunteered to 

 undertake some of the most valuable of those reports which 

 appeared in the first volume of the proceedings of the Associa- 

 tion. As Mr Whewell enumerated these in his last year's address, 

 I will not farther allude to them. It ought, however, specially 

 to be observed, that these reports differ entirely from the short 

 systematic treatise* on scientific subjects with which the press 

 teems. They are not primarily intended for the general reader 

 — they are not meant for the purpose of popularizing technical 

 subjects ; their main object is so to classify existing discoveries 

 as to lead the individual who is prepared to grapple with its 

 difficulties, to start with the most complete and accurate know- 

 ledge of what has already been done in any particular science, 

 not intended itself to contain that knowledge, but merely to 

 serve the purpose of a catalogue raismmie, by means of a lucid 

 analysis and arrangement, at the same time (and here is the 

 great necessity of securing the co-operation of persons distin- 

 guished in the several departments) that the report should 

 point out the most important questions which remain for solu- 

 tion, whether by direct experiment or by mathematical inves- 

 tigation. 



The second volume of Reports has amply justified the ex- 

 pectations with which it was hailed ; and whilst the first was 

 chiefly occupied with reports upon great and leading divisions 

 of science, we have here several happy specimens of a still 

 greater division of labour, by the discussion within moderate 

 limits of some particular provinces. Thus Mr Taylor has 

 treated of one particular and most interesting question in Geo- 

 logy, the formation of Mineral Veins,— one of the most im- 

 portant, in a theoretical point of view, which could have been 

 stated, and which, from its intimate connection with commer- 



