316 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



well as during the critical period of the subsequent peace negotia- 

 tions at Constantinople, when the English despatches passed with- 

 out hindrance over the Indo-European line vid Odessa. At the 

 present time the Indo-European telegraph is not, indeed, for the 

 first time practically the only means of communication between 

 England and her eastern possessions, nor does it prove itself 

 insufficient or unreliable under these trying circumstances, land 



line though it be. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



C. W. SIEMENS. 



12, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE S.W., Aug. 3, 1882. 



ADDRESS 



Of C. WILLIAM SIEMENS,* D.C.L. (Oxon.), LL.D. (Glasgow and 

 Dublin), Ph. D., F.R.S., F.C.S., Member of the Institute of 

 Civil Engineers, President of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, 



Delivered at Southampton on Wednesday, August 23, 1882. 



IN venturing to address the British Association from this chair, 

 I feel that I have taken upon myself a task involving very serious 

 responsibility. The Association has for half a century fulfilled the 

 important mission of drawing together, once every year, scientists 

 from all parts of the country for the purpose of discussing ques- 

 tions of mutual interest, of endowing research, and of cultivating 

 those personal relations which aid so powerfully in harmonising 

 views, and in stimulating concerted action for the advancement of 

 science. 



A sad event casts a shadow over our gathering. "While still 

 mourning the irreparable loss Science had sustained in the person 

 of Charles Darwin, whose bold conceptions, patient labour, and 



* Excerpt Journal of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 1882, pp. 1-33. 



