104 ORGANISATION 



It was as if science, having (temporarily at least) 

 consolidated its own position in the eyes of the public 

 services, and having at length gained a satisfactory 

 measure of recognition from them, was now seeking 

 to extend its direct relations with the public. How- 

 ever that may be, it was in 1866 that two resolutions 

 were sent up to the Council, from the sections of 

 Physics and Economics respectively, to the effect 

 that c a popular lecture for the benefit of the working 

 classes ' should be delivered at each annual meeting. 

 One of these resolutions, indeed, included the limiting 

 clause, ( when the Association meets in large manu- 

 facturing towns ' ; and a committee of the Council, 

 which reported favourably on the scheme, contained 

 the proviso, ' should a request be made for such a 

 lecture by the executive committee in any large town 

 about to be visited.' It is, therefore, worth observing 

 that once the formal series of lectures to the opera- 

 tive classes ' (as they were called) was started, as it 

 was in 1867, it was only broken, apart from overseas 

 meetings when special arrangements prevailed, in 

 three years 1871 at Edinburgh, 1878 at Dublin, 

 and 1899 at Dover. 



The series started well, with lectures by Tyndall 

 at Dundee (1867), on ' Matter and Force/ and Huxley 

 at Norwich (1868), on ' A Piece of Chalk.' Huxley 

 was enthusiastically in favour of the movement : 

 as early as 1855 he had opened at the Jermyn Street 

 Museum his own regular series of lectures to work- 

 ing men, which afterwards became famous ; and to 

 Tyndall, in reference to the Dundee lecture, he wrote : 

 ' You have inaugurated the working men's lectures 

 of the Association in a way that cannot be improved. 

 And it was worth the trouble, for I suspect they will 



