September i8, 1919] 



NATURE 



51 



students, it is of great value. Nor does it 

 appear that his criticisms of the prevalent logic 

 of the schools have been materially shaken, or 

 that his acute comments on Mill's "Canons of 

 Induction " have ever been refuted. His two 

 important books on "Criminal Responsibility" 

 and " Crime and Criminals " are written with 

 much knowledge and careful thought, and form 

 together one of the most notable contributions in 

 the English language to the psychology of 

 criminals and to the nearly allied subject of 

 criminal jurisprudence. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT 

 BOURNEMOUTH. 

 TDEFORE the delivery of Sir Charles Parson's 

 -'-' presidential address to the British Associa- 

 tion last week. Sir Arthur Evans, the retiring 

 president, announced that it was proposed to 

 present an address to the King. The announce- 

 ment was received with much satisfaction, and the 

 address, which is as follows, was enthusiastically 

 approved : — ■ 



Your Majesty, — On the occasion of the outbreak 

 of the great war we, the members of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at that 

 time assembled in our eighty-fifth congress, gave an 

 unanimous expression to our devoted lovalty to vour 

 Majesty's person, which your Majesty was graciously 

 pleased to acknowledge. 



To-day, once more assembled in our eighty-seventh 

 congress, it is our heartfelt desire, on the victorious 

 conclusion of the war and the formal proclamation 

 of peace, to renew those assurances, and to express 

 in more than a formal manner our high sense of the 

 example of self-sacrificing devotion to the service 

 of the country that has been so simply offered bv 

 your Majesty throughout this long and arduous 

 struggle. 



We are painfully aware, indeed, that, in spite of 

 the decision in the field, the period of stress is bv no 

 means over. We cannot, from our special point of 

 view, be blind to the extent to which the bitter 

 emergencies of war-time have been prejudicial to 

 those ideas and methods which it is our mission to 

 promote. But in the not less arduous struggle that 

 lies before us to regain the stable paths of peace we 

 are heartened by the knowledge that the same wise 

 and conciliating influence and high example that was 

 of such sovran help to the British people in war-time 

 will still be with them. 



In vacating the presidential chair Sir Arthur 

 Evans referred to the unprecedented period of 

 three years during which he had occupied, it, and 

 he added : — 



Let it at once be said that, though the public 

 meetings of the association have been suspended, its 

 organisation was constantly directed, at times in con- 

 junction with other bodies like the Royal Society, 

 towards rendering active assistance to the Govern- 

 ment of our country in its hour of need. This has 

 been the case, not only in fields of activity such as 

 chemistry and engineering or the conservation of fuel 

 and other economic objects — in matters, that is, that 

 had a more direct bearing on the emergencies of the 

 struggle — but I think I may say, to a greater or less 

 degree, in every section of our body. 



That expert assistance, as we know, has not always 

 been welcomed by the powers-that-be. The dire 



NO. 2603, VOL. 104] 



necessities of war-time have led to rough-and-ready 

 expedients altogether foreign to scientific method, and 

 often conflicting with the most elementary know- 

 ledge. On every hand we see improvised controls as 

 unscientific as they are arbitrary. We witness the 

 constant overriding of expert experience bv a new- 

 fangled bureaucracy. At every turn we are met with 

 a mischievous interference with natural laws and the 

 perpetuation of uneconomic devices under conditions 

 that no longer even palliate them. Though formal 

 peace has been proclaimed, we are confronted bv an 

 evil heritage of war, and at no time has the British 

 Association had more urgent occasion to inculcate 

 those scientific methods and ideas by which alone the 

 country can hope to regain its equilibrium. 



The attendance at the meeting numbered nearly 

 1500, which is about the same as that at Man- 

 chester in 191 5, and must be regarded as very 

 satisfactory after so long an interval since the 

 last assembly at Newcastle, where the attendance 

 was only 826. A noteworthy point of the Bourne- 

 mouth meeting was the large attendances in all 

 the sections, several of which were uncomfortably 

 filled on more than one occasion. This is a sign 

 both of activity and interest, and it suggests that 

 most of those who attended the meeting this year 

 are concerned directly or indirectly with the 

 advancement of science. In this, as in other 

 respects, the meeting differed somewhat from 

 those of former years, and marked a promising 

 beginning of a new era. 



A Committee appointed by the Council reported 

 upon various matters relating to the working of 

 the Association, and the report was adopted with 

 slight changes by the General Committee. The 

 fee for new life members is to be 15Z. instead of 

 lol., and for annual membership il. 10s. instead 

 of i/., the right to receive the annual volume 

 being included in both cases. The class of asso- 

 ciateship has been abolished. The General Com- 

 mittee decided that after the Cardiff meeting next 

 year, which will be held from a Tuesday to the 

 following Saturday, the old plan of meeting from 

 Wednesday to Wednesday shall be followed. 

 When the Association was founded the meetings 

 began on Wednesdays because the old stage 

 coaches took about a couple of days to bring 

 members to them from other towns, but though 

 this condition no longer holds good there was a 

 general feeling that the week-end break which 

 a Wednesday to Wednesday meeting gives has 

 advantages from the point of view of social inter- 

 course, and that the Association could profitably 

 revert to it. A preferable plan would he to con- 

 sult the Local Committee as to which of the two 

 periods — Tuesday to Saturday or Wednesday to 

 Wednesday — would best suit the town and district 

 in which a meeting was being arranged instead 

 of laying down a hard-and-fast rule for all 

 meetings. 



The question of the position of the Association 

 as regards grants for scientific research was raised 

 in the report of the special Committee referred to, 

 and was discussed at a meeting of the General 

 Committee. During its existence the Association 

 has voted from its funds more than 8o,oooZ. to its 



