in MÀ"  ——— MÀ o t 
\ 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION, MEETING AT EXETER. 283 
the scientifie world generally by receiving ee and publishing 
the results which they may have obta . The British Association, 
on the other hand, aims at giving @ more jewel direction to scien- 
tific inquiry, and that in various ways. 
In a rapidly progressing branch of science it is by no means easy to 
become acquainted with its actual state. The workers in it are scat- 
tered throughout the civilized world, and their results are published in 
a variety of Transactions and scientific periodicals, mixed with other 
scientific matter. To make oneself, without assistance, well acquainted 
with what has been done, it is requisite to have access to an extensive 
library, to be able to read with facility several modern languages, and 
to have leisure to hunt through the tables of contents, or at least the 
indices, of a number of serial works. Without such knowledge there 
is always the risk that a scientific man may spend his strength in doing 
over again what has been done already; whereas with better direction 
the same expenditure of time and labour might have resulted in some 
substantial addition to our knowledge. With a view to meet this diffi- 
culty the British Association has requested individuals who were more 
specially conversant with particular departments of science to draw up 
reports on the present state of our knowledge in, or on the recent pro- 
gress of, special branches; and the influence of the Association as a 
public body has been found sufficient to induce a number of scientific 
men to undertake the great labour of preparing such reports. 
Tow the Oljects are worked out. 
By thus ascertaining thoronghly what we already had, what we still 
wanted was made more clear; and, indeed, it was one special object of 
the reports I have mentioned to point out what were the more promi- 
nent desiderata in the various subjects to which they related. The 
Association was thus the better enabled to fulfil another of its functions, 
that of organizing means for the prosecution of researches which require 
epee. When the want is within the compass of what can be 
accomplished by individuals, the demand may be left to create the 
ENA ; but it often happens that a research can hardly be carried out 
without co-operation. It may, for instance, require a combination of 
the most profound theoretical knowledge with the greatest experimental 
skill, or an extensive knowledge of very dissimilar branches of science ; 
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