PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Ixxiii. 



however, the co-operation of our workers is required, and 

 that is a question into which I do not propose to enter here. 

 The disgraceful and reckless destruction of many of the monu- 

 ments of anliquity, such as cathedrals and other beautiful 

 and historic buildings, and the celebrated library of Louvain 

 by the Germans are utterly unworthy of a people calling 

 themselves civilized, and cannot be justified by any military 

 necessity ; we can only regret them, and would not desire to 

 retaliate by destroying German works of art any more than 

 we should desire to murder innocent women and children 

 as they have done. The British Association has last year 

 extended its operations to Australia, and visited Adelaide, 

 Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, and, in the course of 

 the excursions, many other parts of Australia as well as 

 New Zealand. All the sections were well cared for, 

 and most interesting programmes provided for them. In 

 the Education Section the President insisted much on the 

 importance of a scientific training, and commented on the 

 want of originality developed by the present mode, which 

 turns out pupils like a machine, all with the same ideas and 

 ways. The French Association for the Advancement of the 

 Sciences met at Havre, and extended an invitation to those 

 members of the British Association who did not go to 

 Australia, including the representatives of the Corresponding 

 Societies, whose meeting was held there. The tercentenary 

 of Napier, the discoverer of Logarithms, was celebrated at 

 Edinburgh last July, when their importance in Mathematical 

 calculation was emphasised. At a discussion as to the 

 admission of women as Fellows of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, which was decided in the affirmative by a large 

 majority, 15 societies, including the Linnsean, Royal 

 Geographical, and others, were enumerated which admitted 

 women, and there have certainly been several distinguished 

 astronomers of that sex well worthy of the honour. A 

 nature reserve in the apparently unpromising locality of 

 Spitzbergen is under serious consideration, as in that, as in 

 more genial climates, the animals are much persecuted either 



