10 FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS 



the society at their anniversary. To have the 

 smallest chance, the city desirous of the honour 

 must either be represented by a deputation of 

 members attending the meeting, or must otherwise 

 express to the society, through its president, its 

 desires, its claims, and the efforts it will make for 

 general accommodation/ The inviting deputation 

 is still a yearly feature at meetings of the General 

 Committee of our own Association : on many occa- 

 sions more than one deputation have entered into 

 competition ; on many more, only tactful nego- 

 tiation beforehand, on the part of officers of the 

 Association, has relieved the General Committee of the 

 invidious necessity of deciding between rival claims. 

 The notice from which we are quoting, besides 

 summarising the history of the Deutscher Natur- 

 forscher Versammlung, deals specifically with the 

 meeting at Hamburg in 1830, when for the first time 

 a place devoid of any local scientific institutions or 

 interests was chosen, and the president was Bartels, 

 the chief burgomaster. In early days, as will be 

 seen later, presidents of the British Association also 

 were commonly connected with the places of meet- 

 ing where they occupied the chair. Johnston, at 

 Hamburg, came into conflict with the local secretary : 

 ' It is not my intention to say anything harsh of 

 Dr. Fricke [a leading surgeon of the city], but 

 certainly his temper, his manner towards the 

 strangers, and his general conduct in the discharge 

 of his office, showed him to be entirely unfitted 

 for so distinguished and peculiar a charge/ If 

 allowances be made for differences of national 

 temperament, there is a certain familiarity in the 

 following picture of the general meeting-room (we 



