46 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



were in travail preparing for it; and some one, 

 seizing the right moment to put it forth again, 

 leaped into fame. It is not so much the men 

 of science who make science as some spirit which, 

 born of the truths already won, drives the man 

 of science onward, and uses him to win new 

 truths in turn." Concerning results, he contin- 

 ued: "The material good which mankind has 

 gained and is gaining through the advance of 

 science is so imposing as to be obvious to every 

 one, and the praises of this aspect of science 

 are to be found in the mouths of all. Beyond all 

 doubt science has greatly lessened and has mark- 

 edly narrowed hardship and suffering; beyond 

 all doubt science has largely increased and has 

 widely diffused ease and comfort. The features 

 o'f the fruitful scientific mind are in the main 

 three: In the first place, the seeker after truth 

 must himself be truthful, truthful with the truth- 

 fulness of Nature. In the second place, he must 

 be alert of mind. In the third place, scientific 

 inquiry, though it be pre-eminently an intellec- 

 tual effort, has need of the moral quality of 

 courage. In no branch of science during these 

 later years has there been greater activity and 

 more rapid progress than in that which furnishes 

 the means by which man brings death, suffering, 

 and disaster on his fellow-men." The brother- 

 hood of science was referred to, and he told how 

 the " great need of mutual knowledge and of 

 common action felt by men of science of differ- 

 ent lands is being manifested in a special way. 

 In almost every science inquirers from many 

 lands now gather together at stated intervals 

 in international congresses to discuss matters 

 which they have in common at heart, and go 

 away each one feeling strengthened by having 

 met his brother." In closing he said : " Looking 

 back, then, in this last year of the eighteen hun- 

 dreds, on the century which is drawing to its 

 close, while we may see in the history of scien- 

 tific inquiry much which, telling the man of 

 science of his shortcomings and his weakness, 

 bids him be humble, we also see much, perhaps 

 more, which gives him hope. The past points 

 not to itself, but to the future; the golden age 

 is in front of us, not behind us; that which we 

 do know is a lamp whose brightest beams are 

 shed into the unknown before us, showing us 

 how much there is in front and lighting up the 

 way to reach it. We are confident in the ad- 

 vance because, as each one of us feels that any 

 step forward which he may make is not ordered 

 by himself alone, and is not the result of his 

 own sole efforts in the present, but is, and that 

 in large measure, the outcome of the labors of 

 others in the past, so each one of us has the 

 sure and certain hope that as the past has helped 

 him, so his efforts, be they great or be they small, 

 will be a help to those to come." 



Proceedings of the Sections. A. Mathe- 

 matics and Physics. This section was presided 

 over by John H. Poynting, Professor of Physics 

 in Mason College, Birmingham. His address 

 began with a reference to the establishment of 

 the National Physical Laboratory, of which he 

 said " it was absolutely necessary for the due 

 progress of physical research in this country." 

 He then discussed the methods of investigation 

 as practiced by the physicist, saying: "His 

 method consists in finding out all likenesses, in 

 classing together all similar events, and so giv- 

 ing an account as concise as possible of the mo- 

 tions and changes observed. His success in the 

 search for likenesses and his striving after con- 

 ciseness of description, lead him to imagine such 

 a constitution of things that likenesses exist 



even where they elude his observation, and he 

 is thus enabled to simplify his classification on 

 the assumption that the constitution thus im- 

 agined is a reality. He is enabled to predict, 

 on the assumption that the likenesses of the 

 future will be the likenesses of the past. A por- 

 tion of his address was devoted to a description 

 of the various " hypotheses as to the constitu- 

 tion of matter and the connecting ether." Finally, 

 he referred to the limitations of the physical 

 method, saying : " The discussion of the physical 

 method, with its descriptive laws and explana- 

 tions and its hypothetical extension of descrip- 

 tion, leads us on to the consideration of the 

 limitation of its range. The method was devel- 

 oped in the study of matter which we describe 

 as nonliving, and with nonliving matter the 

 method has sufficed for the particular purpose* 

 of K the physicist." His closing sentences were: 

 " If w r e have full confidence in the descriptive 

 method, as applied to living and nonliving mat- 

 ter, it appears to me that up to the present it 

 teaches us that, while in nonliving matter we 

 can always find similarities, while each event is- 

 like other events, actual or imagined, in a living 

 being there are always dissimilarities. Taking 

 the psychical view the only view which we 

 really do at present take in the living being 

 there is always some individuality, something 

 different from any other living being, and full 

 prediction in the physical sense and by physical 

 methods is impossible. If this be true, the loom 

 of Nature is weaving a pattern with no mere 

 geometrical design. The threads of life, coming 

 in we know T not where, now twining together, 

 now dividing, are weaving patterns of their own, 

 ever increasing in intricacy, ever gaining in 

 beauty." 



Subsequently the following-named papers were 

 read and discussed before the section: Spectro- 

 scopic Examination of Contrast Phenomena, by 

 G. J. Burch; Variation of the Specific Heat of 

 Water, by Hugh L. Callendar and H. T. Barnes; 

 Results of Experiments on the Expansion of 

 Porcelain with Rise of Temperature, by T. G. 

 Bedford; On the Energy in a Turbulent Liquid 

 transmitting Lamina Waves, by George F. Fitz- 

 gerald; Permanence of Certain Gases in the At- 

 mospheres of Planets, by G. H. Bryan; The 

 Thermo-electric Properties of Some Iron Alloys, 

 by W. F. Barrett; On the Production in Rarefied 

 Gases of Luminous Rings in Rotation about Linea 

 of Magnetic Force, by C. E. S. Phillips; A Note 

 on Deep-sea Waves, by Vaughan Cornish; Exist- 

 ence of Masses Smaller than Atoms, by Joseph 

 J. Thomson; A Short Account of the Controversy 

 regarding the Seat of Volta's Contact Force, by 

 Oliver J. Lodge; Sun Spots and Temperature, by 

 Dr. Van Rijckevorsel ; Seismology in Mauritius, 

 by J. F. Claxton; An Account of the Work done 

 at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, by 

 A. Lawrence Rotch, of Boston, Mass., U. S. A.; 

 A Description of the Hydro-aerograph, by F. 

 Napier Denison; Rainfall of the Southeastern 

 Countries of England, by John Hopkinscm; De- 

 scription of a Gravity Balance, by Henry S. 

 Threlfall; Platinum Thermometry, by Hugh L. 

 Callendar; An Account of the Recent Magnetic 

 Work in the United States and Canada, by Louis 

 A. Bauer, of Washington city, U. S. A.; Special 

 Sensitiveness of Mercury Vapor in an Atmos- 

 phere of Hydrogen, and its Influence on the Spec- 

 trum of the Latter, by E. Percival Louis; The 

 Theory of Electrolytic Solution Pressure, by 

 Robert A. Lehfeldt; and Temperature and Dis- 

 persion in Quartz and Iceland Spar, by J. Wil- 

 liam Gifford. 



