1865.] DAWSON — THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 411 



answered to the call, and sent that most eminent philosopher, 

 Dalton ; Ireland sent the Provost of Trinity, Dr. Lloyd ; and 

 Scotland was represented by Brewster, and one who had been at 

 that meeting — Professor Forbes, the eminent mathematician. 

 Cambridge was not represented; but from Oxford came Dr. 

 Daubeny, with an invitation to the Association to meet there on 

 the following year. Next year they met under Buckland at 

 Oxford, and they had with them the most eminent scientific men 

 of the day." 



Since that time the Association has grown to be one of the 

 great institutions of England. Peripatetic and without local 

 habitation, essentially free and easy in its management, loose in 

 its regulations, and democratic in its character, it is the most 

 popular of British scientific societies. Its meetings attract thou- 

 sands of auditors, and its influence, by the wide circulation given 

 to its proceedings through the press, is felt throughout all parts of 

 the British Empire. 



The British Association is by no means to be viewed as a 

 scene of scientific dissipation. Nor must its utility be regarded 

 as confined merely to the diffusion of popular information, though 

 this is no small or despicable use. It has important uses to the 

 cultivators of science themselves. It drags them out of their dens, 

 and brings them face to face with each other and with the world. 

 It gives scope for a free and open interchange of ideas and argu- 

 ments. It makes those who have attained to high positions, 

 acquainted with the humbler workers in their several spheres. It 

 gives the younger men opportunities of coming forward into notice. 

 It throws those who are the oracles of little coteries at home into 

 the wider competition of the world. It enables scientific men in 

 general better to appreciate the work of each other, and to form 

 more accurate notions of the powers and modes of thought of fellow 

 laborers. It affords excellent opportunities for bringing out new 

 facts and discoveries, under circumstances which give the means 

 of testing their real value, and, if they pass this ordeal, of giving 

 them general currency. 



To a student of science, whose ordinary sphere of labor is at 

 a distance from the great centres of scientific work, and who can 

 but rarely have conference with men engaged in similar pursuits 

 with himself, these meetings are particularly valuable, and their 

 value is enhanced by the rarity of opportunities for enjoying 

 them. In our day the aspects of science rapidly change, and the 



