INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 3 



But if it means that the scientific worker, the pursuer of knowledge, 

 is so inhuman a thing as to be devoid of national sentiment and 

 find in it no inspiration for his special calling, it is emphatically 

 untrue. Few, if any, men have done more for science than the 

 Frenchman Pasteur. Of him^and of how few others ? — it can 

 be said that he founded a new science — a special department of 

 knowledge — established its principles and its technique, proved 

 its results, and lived to see them universally appreciated. Humanity 

 benefits, but Pasteur's work was the result of the combination of 

 two forces — his own inherent scientiiic genius and his love of 

 France, and no one acquainted with his life can doubt that the 

 second was almost as potent as the first. A similar national 

 sentiment inspired much of the best work of Kelvin, Huxley, and 

 others of our own greatest men, and it clearly appears in the 

 conception of the British Association. Its object was the Advance- 

 ment of Science, but it was an Association of British workers, 

 moved by the love of their country as well as of Science, convinced 

 that the advancement of the one must necessarily depend on that 

 of the other, and determined that scientific progress should be 

 made in their country, by their country, jor their country and 

 the world. That their object has been achieved in great part is 

 certain. The reports of the annual meetings of the British Asso- 

 ciation since its foundation in 1831, its presidential and sectional 

 addresses, papers, debates, and committee's reports, are an index 

 to the annual progress of Science itself all the world over, and 

 show how large a share of that progress was truly British. Less 

 directly, but quite convincingly to those who know something of 

 the history of events, the success of the Association is shown by 

 the great developments in scientific education and organisation 

 throughout Great Britain within the last two generations — the 

 multiplication of societies that deal with special branches of 

 Science, the enormous increase in the bulk of their annual publica- 

 tions of original research, the introduction of genuine Science 

 work into schools and the older Universities, and the foundation 

 of many new Universities which devote a great part of their 

 resources to such work. That much still remains to be done is 

 also certain, and none know it better than the present leaders of 

 the British Association. Britain still lags behind, it is true ; but 

 it is not with the number of its scientific workers that fault is 

 now to be found, nor with their training and capabilities, nor even 

 with the facilities offered them for their special work ; but the 

 diffusion of the scientific spirit among the general public is still 



