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THEORY AND PRACTICE, IiM THEIR RELATION 

 TO EACH OTHER. 



By J. D. Kendall, W. H, Kitchin, and J. Nixon. 



(Read at Whitehaven.) 



Mr. J. D. KENDALL'S PAPER. 



How frequently do we hear it said that a certain thing or 

 operation is, or ought to be, so-and-so, according to theory, but 

 that practically it is found to be something altogether different, as if 

 the words theory and practice were the expressions of an incom- 

 patibility. That they are held to be such by many we know very 

 well, but I think wrongly so held ; in fact, I hope to be able to 

 show in the course of these remarks that they are rather reciprocal 

 parts of a unity — expressions of operations whose conjunction is 

 essentially necessary for the useful and efficient effect of either of 

 them. As, of course, the agreement or disagreement of theory 

 and practice depend entirely upon the meaning which we attach 

 to those words I shall, in the first place, state what that meaning 

 is. In doing so I shall not trouble you with the definitions they 

 received at the hands of the early Greeks, with whom they origin- 

 ated, and by whom they were contrasted and placed in opposition, 

 but I will rather go at once to the meaning which they have at 

 present. For however useful and interesting it may be to know 

 the origin and history of a word, it is, in my opinion, much more 

 useful to know its meaning now. A theory then may be said to be 

 an explanation of natural phenomena, founded on facts, which are 

 known to be true, from evidence independent of those phenomena 



