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Address to the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science^ delivered on tJie occasion of the Opening of the Fourth 

 General Meeting at Edinburgh, 8th September 1834. By 

 James D. Forbes, F. R. SS. L. & E., Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, and one of the 

 Secretaries of the Association. Communicated by the Author. 



It having been suggested that the general view of the pro- 

 gress of the affairs of the Association, so ably executed last year 

 by Mr W he well, should annually be continued by the Secretary 

 for the time being, I have undertaken this portion of the duties 

 which devolve upon the Secretaries for Edinburgh, at the desire 

 of my learned colleague Mr Robison, who, on the other hand, 

 has engaged briefly to state the nature and motives of the prac- 

 tical arrangements for the present meeting, of which he has had 

 the kindness to superintend by far the most laborious part, ^l 



I felt anxious that such a periodical report as I have men- 

 tioned should be continued, because of the necessarily fluctua- 

 ting state of our Body, and the small number of persons who, 

 by circumstances, have been enabled to attend all the meetings, 

 and to become acquainted with the actual operation of a some- 

 what complicated machine ; and I was ready to undertake that 

 duty, because I hoped that I might be able, by an appeal to 

 facts, in the Jlrst place, to put in a clear point of view, what 

 has not perhaps been enough insisted on, and has therefore 

 been very generally misunderstood, — the perfectly unique cha- 

 racter of this Association, and the high aims to which its efforts 

 are directed ; and, in the second place, to demonstrate that these 

 aims and objects are in the due course of attainment, that the 

 members, and especially the projectors of this institution, are 

 fulfilling the pledges, of no common character, which they gave 

 to the public, and this more especially in relation to the pro- 

 ceedings of the past year. i'«<t 



The character of the Association, I have said, may be cofO- 

 sidered as unique. It is not to be confounded with those nu- 

 merous and flourishing institutions which have sprung up, es- 

 pecially of late years, for the simple diffusion of scientific truths. 

 Such diffusion does not even, properly speaking, include any 



