loS 



NATURE 



[September 23, 1920 



The President's Address should, as a rule, deal with 

 some comprehensive and enlightening theme; but the 

 president is an individual liable to be overweighted by 

 the opportunity for a responsible, more or less pon- 

 derous, utterance, and it is useless to legislate for an 

 individual. 



The function of the two evening lectures is fairly 

 understood, and great trouble is sometimes taken over 

 their illustration. They can be approximately on the 

 lines of a Friday evening discourse at the Royal 

 Institution, but should be still more popular, because 

 the audience, for the most part, will not be so experi- 

 enced and specifically cultivated. They should not, 

 of course, be of the mere elementary " popular lecture " 

 type, and the manner of presentation should be such 

 as to arouse admiration even in those specialists who 

 are learned in the particular subject treated of. But 

 whereas at the Royal Institution it is customary to 

 hear a man discourse on his own investigations, no 

 such tradition naturally exists at the British Associa- 

 tion ; the work of a foreigner or of a recluse may be 

 described, or any other topic dealt with which either 

 is in the public mind already or may be conveniently 

 introduced there. These lectures are also an oppor- 

 tunity for interesting not only the general public, but 

 also the working members of the Association belong- 

 ing to other sections, who are glad of an opportunity 

 of hearing something authoritatively and well ex- 

 pounded by an expert in some branch of science other 

 than their own. 



If examples are permissible, Clerk Maxwell's dis- 

 course on " Molecules " in 1873 at Bradford was not 

 only profoundly, absorbingly, interesting at the time 

 of delivery, but was a genuine elucidation of the 

 molecular problems of that day and of the kinetic 

 theory of gases; and Huxley's discourse on "Animal 

 Automatism," the year afterwards at Belfast, was a 

 marvel of eloquence free from adventitious aids or 

 accessories of any kind. 



So far agreement may be expected ; difficulties begin 

 when we contemplate the work of the sections. Here 

 a certain amount of specialisation is inevitable, and 

 the public who attend the sections expect, and on the 

 whole enjoy, proceedings rather out of their depth. 

 Yet still there are ways of interesting experts without 

 being wholy unintelligible to everyone else. Dullness, 

 indistinctness, inaudibility, and the absence of clarity, 

 are not appreciated even by experts, though much mav 

 be forgiven when the matter is new or important. But 

 liveliness and supfgestiveness are speciallv appropriate 

 at sectional meetings, attended as they are bv kindlv 

 hosts who are anxious to get some glimmering of 

 what science " feels like " to those engaged in it, 

 whom they are for the nonce entertaining. It is 

 probably unwise to limit the proceedings to the deliverv 

 of set papers according to a prearranged and rigid 

 programme. 



Of late years there has been a tendency to 

 curb and curtail discussions •for the sake of com- 

 pleting each item of a programme so far as possible 

 to time. But in the old days discussions were often 

 the most lively, and sometimes the most instructive 

 and suggestive, part of the meetins?. Kelvin and 

 Stokes, Maxwell and Rayleigh, FitzGerald and 

 Larmor — these were men worth hearing ; and, 

 whether they happened to contribute papers or not, 

 their presence was stimulating and their remarks 

 encouraging to the younger men. It was at one of 

 these meetings long ago that the then' unknown J. P. 

 Joule was "discovered," and manv another voung 

 man was brouf?ht into notice bv the enthusiasm of 

 Sir William Thomson and the giants of his era. 

 Then again, Cayley and Sylvester, H. J. .S. Smith, 



NO. 2656, VOL. 106] 



W. K. Clifford, and one or two still living, shone 

 brilliantly in pure mathematics ; and there were the 

 Astronomers as well. Blackboards full of equations 

 were far more frequent than the dim and depressing 

 atmosphere required for lantern-slides, and the audi- 

 ence tound this manner of exposition exhilarating in 

 its own peculiar way. To see physical results 

 emerging from chalk and duster is always an 

 astonishing and edifying spectacle. The realities of 

 physical investigation, and theii obviously recondite 

 character, contribute to respect. Brilliant mathe- 

 matical exposition is both cheaper and easier, in a peri- 

 patetic society, than brilliant experimenting; and if 

 both are forbidden, the true atmosphere of science is 

 not represented. Diagrams are more trouble than 

 lantern-slides, but are in many respects better. 



I see I am speaking of the personnel of Section A 

 only — it is inevitable — but I suppose that something 

 of the same sort must have been occurring in other 

 of the older sections ; certainly a large clientele 

 assembled whenever Huxley was expected to speak, 

 and sometimes he was quite reasonably technical in 

 substance as well as literary in form. .\re we to 

 conclude that there were giants in those days, and 

 despair of maintaining the standard? There is 

 splendid work being done now, but the conditions 

 somehow seem less attractive. 



Let me be not misunderstood as making any com- 

 plaint ! The proceedings in Section A were brilliant 

 this year, from the president's address downwards, 

 and one came away full of admiration for the work 

 of the present generation ; but the programme wa? 

 rather too full. So it used to be long ago also, though 

 four hours were then given to it instead of three, and 

 no kind of time-table was attempted. When Sir 

 William Thomson got into his stride few presidents 

 had the hardihood to check him or to curtail his some- 

 times rambling eloquence; while his young disciples 

 were conscious of enthusiasm and enlightenment, 

 commingled with occasional boredom, and the audience 

 was often delighted with his vivacity, however little 

 they were able to follow. 



I feel sure that among the younger men now there 

 are some whose more frequent contributions to a dis- 

 cussion would be most welcome, but the incubus of a 

 set programme and limited time, together with ap- 

 parently an over-modest expectation of hvpercriticism 

 from their immediate fellows, seems to restrain them. 

 The secretaries of Sections used not to limit their 

 activities to providing for the revelations of others ; 

 they shed a light of their own. \o self-denying 

 ordinance was inflicted on the president, the vice- 

 presidents sat on the platform, and when a lively 

 discussion seemed to be beginning the exigencies of 

 the programme were ignored. The discussions I 

 speak of were not formally arranged ; they arose 

 spontaneously. I remember, for instance, a lively 

 passage-of-arms between Herbert Spencer and Clerk 

 Maxwell on a thermodynamical subject. Sometimes 

 there were real controversies, and occasionally some 

 dissipation of energy in the form of heat. The 

 modern prearranged discussions are an innovation — 

 possibly a good one — but in organising such a discus- 

 sion it has turned out to be a mistake to fire off a group 

 of more or less allied papers by way of an opening. 

 Disconnected and separately conceived papers do not 

 really open ; thev are apt to dissipate interest and 

 stop real discussion, partlv by too extended a range, 

 partly by consumption of time. * 



The procedure of a "debate," one proposer and one 

 opposer, followed bv spontaneous and unprepared 

 speeches which really deal with the points raised, 

 would seem a not imoossible ideal. 



