THE APPLICATIONS OF SCIENCE 77 



the first demonstration was given of its use in driving 

 an Otto gas-engine. At the Oxford meeting in 1894 

 there was a discussion on Maxim's flying machine, 

 and Kelvin, who had no belief in the aeroplane, 

 described this example afterwards as ' a kind of 

 child's perambulator with a sunshade magnified 

 eight times/ Mention of Maxim recalls a vision of 

 himself, exhibiting the gun named after him, mounted 

 upon cycle- wheels, at the Ipswich meeting in 1895. 

 In other directions of the commercial application of 

 science the section of chemistry is perhaps chiefly 

 interested. Progress during our period includes 

 that in the coal-tar and alkali industries, the improve- 

 ment of explosives, and many other directions : in 

 some, the Great War was needed to enforce upon 

 men's minds the powers of science. 



Our endeavour in preceding paragraphs has been 

 to set up a few guide-posts to the advance of science, 

 which will be supplemented by many further examples, 

 where the Association has been directly concerned, 

 later on ; especially in those chapters which deal 

 with researches to which our body has given its 

 support. From time to time presidents of the 

 Association have furnished summaries of progress in 

 science generally or in one or more of its component 

 departments ; but, as Sir Kay Lankester observed 

 in one such survey, 1 ' the mere enumeration of the 

 most important lines of progress in any one science 

 would occupy us for hours.' It has been attempted 

 also to show in this chapter that the progress of 

 science is evolutionary, although any one incident 

 in that progress may be revolutionary. Into the 



1 At York, 1906. For others, see especially Lubbock, 1881 ; 

 Douglas Galton, 1895. 



