366 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES ETC. OF 



ADDRESS 



OF C. W. SIEMENS,* D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., Chairman of 

 the Council of the Society of Arts, 



Delivered at tJie Opening Meeting of the 126th Session, 

 November 15, 1882. 



HAVING received the honour of being elected Chairman of the 

 Council of the Society of Arts for the ensuing year, the duty 

 devolves upon me of opening the coming Session with some intro- 

 ductory remarks. 



Only a few months have elapsed since I was called upon to 

 deliver a presidential address to the British Association at South- 

 ampton, and it may be reasonably supposed that I then exhausted 

 my stock of accumulated thought and observation regarding the 

 present development of science, both abstract and applied ; that, 

 in fact, I come before you, to use a popular phrase, pretty well 

 pumped dry. And yet so large is the field of modern science and 

 industry, that, notwithstanding the good opportunity given me at 

 Southampton, I could there do only scanty justice to comparatively 

 few of the branches of modern progress, and had to curtail, or 

 entirely omit, reference to others, upon which I should otherwise 

 have wished to dwell. 



There is this essential difference between the British Association 

 and the Society of Arts, that the former can only take an annual 

 survey of the progress of science, and must then confide to in- 

 dividuals, or to committees, specific inquiries, to be reported upon 

 to the different sections at subsequent meetings ; whereas the 

 Society of Arts, with its 3,450 permanent members, its ninety-five 

 associated societies, spread throughout the length and breadth of 

 the country, its permanent building, its well-conducted Journal, 

 its almost daily meetings and lectures, extending over six months 

 of the year, possesses exceptionally favourable opportunities of 

 following up questions of industrial progress to the point of their 

 practical accomplishment. 



* Excerpt Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. XXXI., 1882-3, pp. 6-13. 



