THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



1913 



EXPLANATORY NOTES BY THE PRESIDENT 

 Page i 



The Chair of the British Association at Birmingham was 

 to have been filled by Sir William White, F.R.S., late Chief 

 Constructor of the British Navy, who had been made 

 President Elect at the previous Meeting in Dundee in 

 1912; but his unexpected death in the spring of 1913 

 necessitated a fresh election, and the rule of the Association 

 against a local president was broken by the selection of 

 the Principal of the University of Birmingham from the 

 short list of those whose presidency was not likely to be 

 long delayed. This explains the opening paragraph. 



Pages 4, 13, and 15 



The quotations are from a set of four lectures which Dr. 

 Arthur Schuster gave to the University of Calcutta in 

 1908, now published by the Cambridge University Press 

 under the title The Progress of Physics during jj years 

 (1875-1908). 



Page 7 



The immediate predecessor spoken of is Professor 

 Schafer, the physiologist whose address at Dundee in 1912 

 107 



