August 19, 1897] 



NATURE 



369 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



/^ANADA is giving a warm reception to the members 

 ^ of the British Association who have gone over to 

 attend the Toronto meeting. A large number of members 

 arrived in Montreal on Monday, and there was a recep- 

 tion at the McGill University, at which about two hundred 

 persons were present. The Times reports that the visitors 

 were received by Vice-Principal Johnson, the Governors, 

 and the Fellows, and were conducted in parties 

 over the University, its fine collections, laboratories, 

 ^S:c. Luncheon was served in Molson Hall, and the 

 President of the Governors proposed the toast of the 

 Association. Lord Lister responded, and Sir John 

 Evans proposed the toast of the University. The National 

 Anthem was sung, and afterwards the company drove in 

 carriages to Mount Royal, where a reception was held, 

 which was much appreciated by the .'\ssociation. 



The programme of the meeting at Toronto shows that 

 the time of the members will be fully occupied. The 

 first general meeting took place yesterday as we went to 

 press, and the President's address was delivered in the 

 evening. The Sections meet to-day, and the addresses 

 of the Sectional Presidents were to be delivered this 

 morning. Following our usual custom, we print this 

 week the complete addresses of the President and 

 of the Presidents of Sections A and B. Other sec- 

 tional addresses will appear in future numbers, and 

 also reports of the work of the Sections. 



A large garden party will be given this afternoon at 

 the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto Island. His 

 Excellency, the Governor-General, and the Countess of 

 -Aberdeen will this evening give a reception to the 

 members in the Parliament buildings of the Province of 

 Ontario. To-morrow there will be meetings of the 

 Sections until about three o'clock, when there will be a 

 Convocation of the University of Toronto to confer the 

 honorar}' degree of Doctor of Laws upon Lord Kelvin, 

 Lord Lister, Sir John Evans and the President of the 

 American Association, Prof Wolcott Gibbs. After Con- 

 vocation is over, there will be several garden parties for 

 the members. On Saturday morning the Sections will 

 meet and adjourn early, in order that the members may 

 take the various excursions which have been arranged from 

 Saturday to Monday. On Tuesday next there will be a 

 Convocation of Trinity University to confer the honorary 

 degree of D.C.L. on Lord Lister, Sir John Evans and 

 Prof Forsyth ; this ceremony will be followed by several 

 garden parties. In the evening there will be a conver- 

 sazione, with music and refreshments, in the main build- 

 ing of the University of Toronto for all the members of 

 the -Association. On Wednesday the Sections will meet 

 for their concluding meeting, and in the afternoon the 

 second and last general meeting of the Association will 

 take place. 



I.NAUGURAL ADDRESS BY SlR JOH-\ EVANS, K.C.B., D.C.L.» 



LL.D., Sc.D., TREAS.R.S., V.P.S.A., For.Sec.G.S., 



CORRESCOXOANT DE I.'InSTITUT DE FRANCE, &C., 



President. 



Once more has the Dominion of Canada invited the British 

 -Association for the Advancement of Science to hold one of the 

 annual meetings of its members within the Canadian territory ; 

 and for a second time has the Association had the honour and 

 pleasure of accepting the proferred hospitality. 



In doing so, the Association has felt that if by any possibility 

 the scientific welfare of a locality is promoted by its bemg the 

 scene of such a meeting, the claims should be fully recognised 

 of those who, though not dwelling in the British Isles, are still 

 inhabitants of that Greater Britain whose prosperity is so 

 intimately connected with the fortunes of the Mother Country. 



Here, especially, as loyal subjects of one beloved Sovereign, 

 the sixtieth year of whose beneficent reign has just been 

 celebrated with equal rejoicing in all parts of her Empire ; as 

 speaking the same tongue, and as in most instances connected by 



the ties of one common parentage, we are bound together in alt 

 that can promote our common interests. 



There is, in all probability, nothing that will tend more to 

 advance those interests than the diffusion of science in all parts 

 of the British Empire, and it is towards this end that the 

 aspirations of the British Association are ever directed, even if 

 in many instances the aim may not be attained. 



We are, as already mentioned, indebted to Canada for previous 

 hospitality, but we must also remember that, since the time when 

 we last assembled on this side of the Atlantic, the Dominion has 

 provided the Association with a President, Sir William Dawson, 

 whose name is alike well known in Britain and America, and 

 whose reputation is indeed world-wide. We rejoice that we 

 have Still among us the pioneer of American geology, who 

 among other disco\eries first made us acquainted with the " Air- 

 breathers of the Coal," the terrestrial or more properly arboreal 

 Saurians of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Coal- 

 measures. 



On our last visit to Canada, in 1884, our place of assembly was 

 Montreal, a city which is justly proud of her McGill University ; 

 to-day we meet within the buildings of another of the Universities 

 of this vast Dominion — and in a city, the absolute fitness of 

 which for such a purpose must have been foreseen by the native 

 Indian tribes when they gave to a small aggregation of huts 

 upon this spot the name of Toronto—" the place of meetings." 



Our gathering this year presents a feature of entire novelty 

 and extreme interest, inasmuch as the sister As.sociation of the 

 United States of America — still mourning the loss of her illus- 

 trious President, Prof. Cope— and some other learned societies, 

 have made special arrangements to allow of their members 

 coming here to join us. I need hardly say how welcome their 

 presence is, nor how gladly we look forward to their taking 

 part in our discussions, and aiding us by interchange of thought. 

 To such a meeting the term " international " seems almost mis- 

 applied. It may rather be described as a family gathering, in 

 which our relatives more or less distant in blood, but still 

 intimately connected with us by language, literature, and habits 

 of thought, have spontaneously arranged to take part. 



The domain of science is no doubt one in which the various 

 nations of the civilised world meet upon equal terms, and for 

 which no other passport is required than some evidence of having 

 striven towards the advancement of natural knowledge. Here, 

 on the frontier between the two great English-speaking nations 

 of the world, who is there that does not inwardly feel that any- 

 thing which conduces to an intimacy between the representatives 

 of two countries, both of them actively engaged in the pursuit 

 of science, may also, through such an intimacy, react on the 

 affairs of daily life, and aid in preserving those cordial relations 

 that have now for so many years existed between the great 

 American Republic and the British Islands, with which her 

 early foundations are indissolubly connected ? The present year 

 has witnessed an interchange of courtesies which has excited the 

 warmest feelings of approbation on both sides of the Atlantic. I 

 mean the return to its proper custodians of one of the most 

 interesting of the relics of the Pilgrim Fathers, the Log of the 

 Mayflower. May this return, trifling in itself, be of happy 

 augury as testifying to the feelings of mutual regard and esteem 

 which animate the hearts both of the donors and of the 

 recipients ! 



At our meeting in Montreal the President was an investigator 

 who had already attained to a foremost place in the domains of 

 Physics and Mathematics, Lord Rayleigh. In his address he 

 dealt mainly with topics, such as Light, Heat, Sound, and 

 Electricity, on which he is one of our principal authorities. His 

 name and that of his fellow-worker. Prof Ramsay, are now 

 and will in all future ages be associated with the discovery of 

 the new element, -Argon. Of the ingenious methods by which 

 that discovery was made, and the existence of Argon es- 

 tablished, this is not the place to speak. One can only hope 

 that the element will not always continue to justify its name by 

 its inertness. 



The claims of such a leader in physical science as Lord 

 Rayleigh to occupy the Presidential chair are self-evident, but 

 possibly those of his successor on this side of the Atlantic are 

 not so immediately apparent. I cannot for a moment pretend 

 to place myself on the same purely scientific level as my dis- 

 tinguished friend and for many years colleague. Lord Rayleigh, 

 and my claims, such as they are, seem to me to rest on entirely 

 different grounds. 



Whatever little I may have indirectly been able to do in 



NO. 145 I. VOL. 56] 



