Augtist 28, 1879J 



NATURE 



407 



sideration, calls for instant decision. They think that the 

 reasons which led them in 1877 to constitute the present 

 Meteorological Council, rather than to create a new 

 Government department, are not without weight in regard 

 to displacing the trustees of the British Museum. My 

 Lords do not intend to propose to Parliament any imme- 

 diate change in the management of these collections, and 

 they would be glad to find that the reasons which had led 

 to the recommendations of the Royal Commission had 

 been found to be capable of being met without any serious 

 departure from the principles of a more or less indepenent 

 trust." 



It was generally agreed that this reply was very disap- 

 pointing, and after remarks ' from various Members of 

 Council, Prof. Huxley drew attention to the paragraph in 

 the Treasury' s letter where the manner in which the mete- 

 orological body had been dealt with, was mentioned, and 

 said that to make any such comparison would be simply 

 ludicrous. The Meteorological Committee was composed 

 of the greatest experts in meteorology within the three 

 kingdoms. He desired to speak with every respect of 

 such distinguished persons as the trustees of the British 

 Museum, but he could not say that they stood in the same 

 position to natural history. There was no point of resem- 

 blance in referring to the placing of meteorology in the 

 hands of a meteorological council. If the Treasury was 

 prepared to place the management of the natural history 

 department of the British Museum in the hands of a body 

 which corresponded in zoology to what meteorology was 

 in the meteorological council, that was an exceedingly 

 intelligent proposition, and the General Committee should 

 consider it carefully before they said anything against it, 

 for it came very much to what the committee was advo- 

 cating. As the Treasury appeared to be still fluid and 

 mobile, it might be well that the General Committee 

 replied to the letter, saying that the Treasury themselves 

 suggested a basis on which they could construct an 

 administration which would be perfectly satisfactory to 

 the British Association, and therefore it would be perfectly 

 agreeable to all round. 

 The sum received for tickets this year has been 1,425/. 

 Next year the Association meets at Swansea, when Prof. 

 Ramsay will be President. In 1881 the Association cele- 

 brates its jubilee at York — a year behind time. 

 The following grants have been made : — 



A — Mathematics and Physics £ 



Lodge, Dr. — New Form of High Insulation Key 10 



Adaia;;, Prof. — .Standard of White Light 20 



Everett, Prof. — Underground Temperature 10 



Joule, Dr. — Determination of the Mechanical Equivalent 



of Heat 50 



Thomson, Sir W. — Elasticity of wire 50 



Glaisher, Mr. — Luminous Meteors 30 



Darwin, Mr. G. H. — Lunar Disturbance of Gravity ... 30 



.Sylvester, Prof. — Fundamental Invariants 50 



Perry, Mr. J. — Laws of Water Friction 20 



Ayrton, Mr. W. E. — Specific Inductive Capacity of 



Sprengel Vacuum 20 



Ilaughton, Rev. Prof. — Completion of Tables of Sun-heat 



Co-efficients 50 



Forbes, Prof. G. — Instrument for Detection of Firedamp 



in Mines 10 



Thomson, Mr. J. M.— Inductive Capacity of Crystals and 



FarafTmes 25 



B — Chimistry 



Dewar, Prof. — Spectrum Analysis 10 



Wallace, Dr. — Development of Light from Coal-gas ... 10 



C — Geology 



Duncan, Prof. P. M. — Report on Carboniferous Polyzoa 10 



Adam, Prof. A. L. — Caves of South Ireland 10 



Seeley, Prof. — Viviparous Nature of Ichthyosaurus 10 



Evans, Mr. John — Kent's Cavern Exploration 50 



Evans, Mr. John. — Geological Record 100 



Williamson, Prof. W. C. — Miocene Flora of the Basalt of 



North Ireland 15 



Hull, Prof. — Underground Waters of Permian Formation 3 



D — Biology 



Pye-Smith, Dr. — Elimination of Nitrogen by Bodily Exer- ' £, 



cise 50 



Lane- Fox, General M. — Anthropological Notes 20 



Stainton, Mr. — Record of Zoological Literature 100 



Foster, Dr. M. — Table at Zoological Station at Naples ... 75 

 Gamgee, Dr. A. — Investigation of the Geology and 



Zoology of Mexico 50 



Lubbock, Sir J. — Excavations at Port Stewart 15 



F^Statistics atui Economic Science 



Farr, Dr. — Anthropometry ep 



G — Mechanics 



Bramwell, Dr. — Patent Laws 5 



SECTION A 



MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL 



;^96o 



Opening Address byG. Johnstone Stoney, M.A., F.R.S.. 

 Secretary to the Queen's University in Ireland 



In order that we may understand the present position of 

 natural science upon the earth, we must remember that the uni- 

 verse is in itself one great whole, which includes minds no less 

 than bodies, for thought is as much a phenomenon of what really 

 exists as motion. But though the universe be but one, man with 

 his limited powers is unable to treat it as such, but has to push 

 his investigation of nature when and where he can. Thus have 

 arisen many sciences which were at first quite isolated. Their 

 separate condition is a mark of the feebleness of our powers of 

 investigation. Their gradual convergence, and especially where 

 any complete contact can be established between them, is the 

 mark that our advancing knowledge is penetrating deeper. 



That there are many sciences of nature, instead of one science 

 of nature, has its relation, then, to human imperfection. But 

 the coalescence of sciences has com -. enced, and is steadily taking 

 place ; magnetism is no longer isolated from electricity, nor light 

 from heat, nor the power of thinking from the condition of the 

 brain. In all such cases we have got nearer to understanding 

 what is really going on in nature. There are already many siich 

 achievements of science, but nevertheless it remains true that 

 human powers of investigation are so narrow, and the use we 

 have made of them up to the present is so short of what we may 

 reasonably look for in the future, that the sciences of nature are 

 still many, and most of them stand lamentably aloof from one 

 another. 



We find, then, in the present passing condition of our know- 

 ledge, one group of sciences w hich investigate the phenomena of 

 consciousness, another distinct group of the biological sciences, 

 and a third, the group of the physical sciences. These are all but 

 parts of the one great investigation of nature, but for the present 

 they exist almost disconnected, as separate provinces of human 

 inquiry. 



After remarking on the complication of the Biological Sciences 

 Prof. Stoney said : — 



In the rest of the study of nature we are not embarrassed by 

 the phenomena of life, and many mysteries therefore stand aside 

 out of our path. Here lies the domain of the physical sciences. 

 It is here that the mind of man has best been able to cope with 

 the realities of the Universe, and in which its greatest achieve- 

 ments have been effected. It is here that exact reasoning finds a 

 predominant place. 



The process of investigation in the exact sciences is funda- 

 mentally one in all cases. It has been well described by Mill in 

 the Third Book of his Logic. Nevertheless it is notorious that 

 minds v\hich are well fitted for some branches of physical in- 

 quiry, find difficulty — sometimes insuperable difficulty — in pur- 

 suing others. It is not every eminent mathematician who would 

 have made an equally good chemist, or vice versA. This is 

 because there exists a practical distinction separating the investi- 

 gations of exact science into two well-marked classes when they 

 are view ed, not as they are in themselves, but in their relation to 

 the powers of us, human beings. I refer to the distinclion 

 between the experimental method or the method of observation, 

 on the one hand, and the deductive method or the method of 

 reasoning, on the other. All valid investigations in exact science 

 appeal to what can be directly perceived, and all lead to a con- 

 clusion which can be reasoned out from it ; but there are some 

 of these investigations in which the main difficulty consists in 



