THE AIM AND PROGRESS OF 

 PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



An Opening Address delivered at the Naturforscher Versammh 

 Inmbruck, 1869. 



IN accepting the honour you have done me in requesting me to 

 deliver the first lecture at the opening meeting of this year's 

 Association, it appears to me to be more in keeping with the im- 

 port of the moment and the dignity of this assembly that, in 

 place of dealing with any particular line of research of my own, 

 I should invite you to cast a glance at the development of all the 

 branches of physical science represented on these occasions. 

 These branches include a vast area of special investigation, 

 material of almost too varied a character for comprehension, the 

 range and intrinsic value of which become greater with each 

 year, while no bounds can be assigned to its increase. During 

 the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von 

 Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his 

 time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalisation. 

 At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether 

 this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a 

 mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's 

 was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose. 

 We, however, working as we do to advance a single depart- 

 ment of science, can devote but little of our time to the 

 simultaneous study of the other branches. As soon as we enter 

 upon any investigation, all our powers have to be concentrated 

 on a field of narrowed limit. We have not only, like the philo- 



