EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



a desire to increase the cultivation and 

 augment the influence of science by 

 bringing larger portions of the commu- 

 nity within reach of scientific facilities, 

 and making more familiar the inter- 

 course of men devoted to scientific la- 

 bors. Numerous societies already ex- 

 isted for the promotion of research, both 

 special and general, but they were local 

 in their operations, while their members 

 met their fellow-workers in different 

 cities but rarely, and multitudes of edu- 

 cated people were not brought within 

 the circle of scientific influence. Yet 

 the number of these societies attested 

 that the work of scientific investigation 

 had taken deep root. Scientific knowl- 

 edge had become greatly extended, and 

 this led, by the inevitable course ot 

 things, to the necessity of more efficient 

 and comprehensive organization for its 

 further increase and diffusion. With 

 the growing sense of the general im- 

 portance, and the augmenting influ- 

 ence of science in society, there was a 

 strengthening desire to share its work 

 and its advantages, and this naturally 

 led to association upon a new basis, 

 better adapted to the new conditions. 

 The British Association, instead of tak- 

 ing root in one locality, was constituted 

 as a migratory body that should hold 

 its annual sessions, of a week's duration, 

 successively in the different cities of the 

 United Kingdom. It was announced at 

 the first meeting that, while contemplat- 

 ing no interference with the ground oc- 

 cupied by other institutions, its objects 

 shall be "to give a stronger impulse 

 and a more systematic direction to sci- 

 entific inquiry — to promote the inter- 

 course of those who cultivate science 

 in different parts of the British Empire, 

 with one another and with foreign phi- 

 losophers — to obtain a more general 

 attention to the objects of science, and a 

 removal of any disadvantages of a pub- 

 lic kind wliich impede its progress." 



These objects of the Association have 

 been well fulfilled in its history. It 

 has been a power in England for the 



accomplishment of the purposes des- 

 ignated. It has attracted multitudes 

 of capable men to devote themselves 

 to scientific pursuits. It has systema- 

 tized and promoted observation and 

 research in various fields, and has lent 

 efficient pecuniary assistance to many 

 workers who were without the means 

 for investigation. Its career has been 

 coincident with the highest scientific 

 activity in all civilized countries, and it 

 has lent its powerful co-operation in 

 bringing out many of the grand scien- 

 tific results that will make the last half- 

 century memorable in scientific histo- 

 ry. The British Association has, more- 

 over, been administered from the be- 

 ginning in a liberal spirit and with en- 

 larged views. While mainly devoted 

 to the extension and the improvement 

 of scientific knowledge, it has never 

 been afraid to express its sympathy with 

 the popular aspects of scientific ques- 

 tions, and it has wisely lent its influence 

 for the encouragement and general pro- 

 motion of scientific education. Per- 

 haps no higher testimony could be af- 

 forded of the excellence of its plan, the 

 value of its labors, and its adaptation to 

 the requirements of the period, than the 

 fact that it has been successfully imi- 

 tated both in the United States and in 

 different Continental countries. 



The coming of this body across the 

 Atlantic to hold one of its annual ses- 

 sions in Montreal, while quite in ac- 

 cordance with its established policy 

 of enlarging the field of scientific in- 

 fluence, is such a signal stroke of ex- 

 pansion as fitly to make an epoch in its 

 beneficent career. It does not, indeed, 

 overpass the limits of the British Em- 

 pire, but it migrates to a new continent, 

 and if not to a foreign, at least to a 

 distant and a different people. It seems 

 to us, therefore, that, to reach the high- 

 est utility of the occasion, it should be 

 be made subservient to the more sys- 

 tematic organization of international 

 agencies for the promotion of science. 

 While in itself but a transient event, it 



