XXXIV REPORT—1849, 
portant to class and interpret than to collect, and the latter part of its office 
became subordinate to the other. By degrees, as its accumulating duties 
began to surpass its powers, we find dissatisfaction appearing, and complaints 
that particular branches of science are neglected to favour others not so im- 
portant. At last, the necessity of a division of work becomes apparent; a 
society splits off to devote itself to geology,—another to astronomy,—others 
to various branches of Natural History,—while the parent, like Trembley’s 
hydra, is more active and powerful than before this division. That this 
process has increased our knowledge a hundred-fold, will not be disputed 
by any who have watched its progress during the last thirty years; and yet 
it can scarcely be denied that, besides the chance of exciting hostile feelings 
between rival societies, it is open to another objection. The different 
branches of science cannot well be isolated ; each depends on many others, 
Geology presses into its service not merely its special subject, but also the 
Geometry of Hopkins, the Botany of Lindley, and the Zoography of Owen 
and Agassiz. Astronomy must not only track the unseen with Adams and 
Le Verrier, or fathom the abysses of the sky with Herschel and Rosse,—it 
must also visit the workshops of the machinist with Airy and Struve. And 
so of the rest ; they cannot be disunited : and therefore it is evident that some 
system must be found, which, while it leaves unfettered the whole special 
organization of each Society, shall yet combine their exertions, not merely 
with each other, but also with the great and ever-increasing multitude of 
fellow-labourers beyond their precincts. Therefore it was not merely a 
happy thought of the good and wise men who were the founders of the 
British Association which led to its existence ; this, or something equivalent, 
was a necessary result of the expansion of that principle whose course I have 
been tracing, and which must, ere long, have found some other development 
had they not turned it in this direction. It leaves untouched all that was 
previously available, and merely adds what experience had shown to be 
deficient. ‘Thus we do not interfere in any way with any Society; on the 
contrary, we identify ourselves with them as far as possible. We admit, as 
of right, the members of all chartered Societies that publish Transactions — 
throughout our empire ; the officers and councils of philosophical institutions, — 
and all their members who are recommended by those councils; and our — 
governing power, or General Committee, is almost entirely derived from the — 
same source,—it is chiefly composed of ‘‘ members who have printed papers 
in the Transactions of any philosophical society, or of delegates from such — 
societies or philosophical institutions.” We withdraw nothing from their 
Transactions ; our reports are of a totally different character; on the con- 
trary, we assist them; for many of the most valuable communications, which 

