ADDRESS. It 



Practical Mechanics, or of the sciences connected with Natural History ; nor 

 have I spoken of Ethnologj-, a science, which, though of such recent date, 

 is become of great interest, and one which is gccupying the minds of men of 

 great learning and profound research. I can only hope that the chair wliich 

 I have now the honour to occupy, will, from lime to time, be filled by men 

 qualified to do full justice to these important sciences. What I have now 

 said, however, may serve to convey to you some idea of the activity which 

 pervades almost every department of science. 



I must not conclude this address without some mention of what appear 

 to me to be the legitimate objects of our Association, or without some allu- 

 sion to circumstances, calculated, I think, to give increased importance to its 

 general working and influence. 



There are probably few among us of whom the inquiry has not been made 

 after any one of our meetings — whether any striking discovery had been 

 brought forward ; and most of us will also probably have remarked that an 

 answer in the negative has frequently produced something like a feeling of 

 disappointment in the inquirer. But such a feeling can only arise from a 

 misapprehension of what I conceive to be the real and legitimate objects of 

 the British Association. Great discoveries do not require associations to 

 proclaim them to the world. They proclaim themselves. We do not meet 

 to receive their announcement, or make a display of our scientific labours in 

 the eyes of the world, or to compliment each other on the success we may 

 have met with. Outward display belongs not to the proceedings, and the 

 language of mutual compliment belongs not to the language of earnest- 

 minded men. We meet, Gentlemen, if I comprehend our purpose rightly, to 

 assist and encourage each other in the performance of the laborious daily 

 tasks of detailed scientific investigation. A great thought may possibly arise 

 almost instantaneously in the mind, and the intuition of genius may almost 

 as immediately recognise its importance, and partly foresee its consequences. 

 Individual labour may also do much in establishing the truth of a new prin- 

 ciple or theory ; but what an amount of labour uiay its multifarious applica- 

 tions involve I Nearly two centuries have not sufficed to work out all the 

 consequences of the principle of gravitation. Every theory, as it becomes 

 more and more perfectly worked out, embraces a greater number of phaeno- 

 mena, and requires a greater number of labourers for its complete de- 

 velopment. Thus it is that when science has arrived at a certain stage, 

 combination and co-operation become so essential for its further progress. 

 Each scientific society effects this object in a greater or less degree, but 

 much of its influence may be of a local character, and it is usually restricted 

 by a limited range of its objects. Up to a certain point no means are pro- 

 bably so effective for the promotion of science as these particular societies, 

 which devote themselves to one particular branch of science ; but as each 

 science expands, it coi os into nearer relations with other sciences, and a 

 period must arrive in this general and progressive advance, which must 

 render the co-operation of the cultivators of different branches of science 

 almost as essential to our general progress, as the combination of those who 

 cultivate the same branch was essential to the progress of each particular 

 science in its earlier stages. It is the feeling of the necessity of combination 

 and facility of intercourse among men of science that has given rise to a 

 strong wish that the scientific memoirs of different societies should be ren- 

 dered, by some general plan, more easily and generally accessible than they 

 are at present — a subject which I would press on your consideration. It is 

 by promoting this combination that the British Association has been able to 



