No. 6.] president's address b. a. a. s. 339 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF 

 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE FOR THE YEAR 1882. 



Siace the days of the first meeting of the Association in York, 

 in 1831, great changes have taken place in the means at our dis- 

 posal 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, nmonust which I need only name 

 here the Physical, Geographical, Meteorological, Anthropological, 

 and Linnean, cultivating abstract science, and the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Naval Architects, the 

 Iron and Steel Institute, the Society of Telegraph Engineers 

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

 the Society of Chemical Industry, representing applied science. 

 These meet at frequent intervals in London, whilst others, hav- 

 ing similar objects in view, hold their meetings at the University 

 towns, and at other centres of intelligence and industry through- 

 out 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 realised. If we consider, fur- 

 ther, the extraordinary development of scientific journalism 

 which has taken place, it cannot surprise us when we meet 

 with expressions to the effect that the British Association 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 on that occasion by my distinguished predeces- 

 sor in office, Sir John Lubbock, has proved, at least, that the 

 British Association is not dead in the affection of its members, 

 and it behoves us at this, the first ordinary gathering in tho 

 second half-century, to consider what are the strong points to 

 rely upon for the continuance of a career of success and useful- 

 ness. 



If the facilities brought home to our doors of acquiring scien- 

 tific information have increased, the necessities for scientific 



