440 



NA TURE 



[September 6, 1900 



a grand concert in St. George's Hall, at which Madame 

 Ella. Russell will be the privid donna. The Bradford 

 Perriianent Orchestra^ under the conductorship of Mr. 

 Frederick Cowen, will render a very interesting pro- 

 gramme ; and the Festival Choral Society are to perform 

 certain celebrated items from the works of Handel, 

 "Wagner and Sullivan. 



A temporary museum, illustrative of papers read before 

 the Sections, will be provided in the Girls' Grammar 

 School. Its primary object is to afford a space where 

 those who read papers can deposit any specimens or 

 apparatus which they may show, and which thus can be 

 ■examined more at leisure than in the Section Room. In 

 addition, the Bradford officials have endeavoured to get 

 together some choice geological specimens of local 

 interest, which will illustrate the discussions to take 

 place in the Geological and Botanical Sections on 

 'the origin of coal ; and also specimens illustrating the 

 jreef-knolls of the Craven district, which have been the 

 -subject of controversy in recent years. Further, Mr. 

 Butler Wood, the chief librarian under the Bradford 

 •Corporation, has taken under his care a collection of 

 ■local prehistoric specimens. 



Amongst the readers of papers, Mr. J. J. Stead, of 

 Middlesbrough, will e.xhibit specimens of metals, treated 

 by a peculiar method which he has discovered. There 

 •will be numerous maps, principally geological— several 

 dealing with the investigation of the underground water- 

 courses of Malham and Ingleborough. There will also 

 be a contribution, by Mr. A. D. Ellis, of a number of 

 rare and valuable atlases, of the sixteenth to the eighteenth 

 centuries ; while various lantern slides used in the Sections 

 ivill be shown on transparent screens. In addition, the 

 Science and Art Department have promised the loan of 

 the bett work that was done in the recent National 

 ■Competition ; and the collection from South Kensington 

 lis expected to be of an exceptionally attractive character, 

 representing, as it does, the cream of the best work of 

 the Art Schools of the country. It is intended that the j 

 •exhibits shall be largely illustrative of the products of 

 Bradford, and that they shall also illustrate, to a certain ! 

 •extent, the work that is being done at the Municipal \ 

 Technical College. Ramsden Bacchus. j 



Inaugural Address by Prof. Sir William Turner, 

 M.B., D.C.L., D.Sc, F.R.S., President of the 

 Association. ' 



Twenty SEVEN years ago the British Association met in 

 Bradford, not at that time raised to the dignity of a City. The 

 ■meeting was very successful, and was attended by about 2000 

 persons — a forecast, let us hope, of what we may expect at the 

 f)resent assembly. A distinguished chemist, Prof. A. W. 

 Williamson, presided. On this occasion the Association has 

 ■selected for the presidential chair one whose attention has been 

 ;given to the study of an important department of biological 

 science. His claim to occupy, however unworthily, the distin^ 

 jguished position in which he has been placed rests, doubtless, 

 x)n the fact that, in the midst of engrossing duties devolving on 

 a teacher in a great University and School of Medicine, he has 

 •endeavoured to contribute to the sum of knowledge of the 

 science which he professes. It is a matter of satisfaction to 

 tfeel that the success of a meeting of this kind does not rest upon 

 the shoulders of the occupant of the presidential chair, but is 

 •due to the eminence and active co-operation of the men of 

 science who either preside over or engage in the work of the \ 

 «ine or ten sections into which the Association is divided, and 

 •to the energy and ability for organisation displayed by the 

 4ocal Secretaries and Committees. The programme prepared ' 

 +)y the general and local officers of the Association shows that .. 

 no efforts have been spared to provide an ample bill of fare, I 

 l)oth in its scientific and social aspects. Members and Associates | 

 -will, I feel sure, take away from the Bradford Meeting as 

 pleasant memories as did our colleagues of the corresponding 

 Association Fran9aise, when, in friendly collaboration at Dover '■ 

 last year, they testified to the common citizenship of the I 



Universal Republic of Science. As befits a leading centre of 

 industry in the great county of York, the applications of 

 science to the indiistrial arts and to agriculture will form subjects 

 of discussion in the papers to be read at the meeting. 



Since the Association was at Dover a year ago, two of its 

 former Presidents have joined the majority. The Duke of 

 Argyll presided at the meeting in Glasgow so far back as 1855. 

 Throughout his long and energetic life, he proved himself to be 

 an eloquent and earnest speaker, one who gave to the considera- 

 tion of public affairs a mind of singular independence, and a 

 thinker and writer in a wide range of human knowledge. Sir 

 J. Wm. Dawson was President at the meeting in Birmingham iit 

 1886. Born in Nova Scotia in 1820, he devoted himself to the 

 study of the Geology of Canada, and became the leading 

 authority on the subject. He look also an active and influential 

 part in promoting the spread of scientific education in the 

 Dominion, and for a number of years he was Principal and 

 Vice-chancellor of the M'Gill University, Montreal. 



Scientific Method. 



Edward Gibbon has told us that diligence and accuracy are 

 the only merits which an historical writer can ascribe to himself. 

 Without doubt they are fundamental qualities necessary for 

 historical research, but in order to bear fruit they require to be 

 exercised by one whose mental qualities are such as to enable 

 him to analyse the data brought together by his diligence, to 

 discriminate between the false and the true, to possess an insight 

 into the complex motives that determine human action, to be 

 able to recognise those facts and incidents which had exercised 

 either a primary or only a secondary influence on the affairs of 

 nations, or on the thoughts and doings of the person whose 

 character he is depicting. 



In scientific research, also, diligence and accuracy are funda- 

 mental qualities. By their application new facts are discovered 

 and tabulated, their order of succession is ascertained, and a 

 wider and more intimate knowledge of the processes of nature 

 is acquired. But to decide on their true significance a well- 

 balanced mind and the exercise of prolonged thought and 

 reflection are needed. William Harvey, the father of exact 

 research in physiology, in his memorable work, " De Motu 

 Cordis et Sanguinis," published more than two centuries ago, 

 tells us of the great and daily diligence which he exercised in 

 the course of his investigations, and the numerous observations 

 and experiments which he collated At the same time he 

 refers repeatedly to his cogitations and reflections on the meaning 

 of what he had observed, without which the complicated move- 

 ments of the heart could not have been analysed, their significance 

 determined, and the circulation of the blood in a continuous 

 stream definitely established. Early in the present century, 

 Carl Ernst von B.ier, the father of embryological research, 

 showed the importaice which he attached to the combination of 

 observation with meditation by placing side by side on the title 

 page of his famous treatise, " Ueber Entwickelungsgeschichte der 

 Thiere " (182S), the words Beobachtttn^^ und Reflexion. 



Though I have drawn from biological science my illustrations 

 of the need of this combination, it must not be inferred that it 

 applies exclusively to one branch of scientific inquiry ; the con- 

 junction influences and determines progress in all the sciences, 

 and when associated with a sufficient touch of imagination, 

 when the power of seeing is conjoined with the faculty of fore- 

 seeing, of projecting the mind into the future, we may expect 

 something more than the discovery of isolated facts ; their 

 co-ordination and the enunciation of new principles and laws 

 will necessarily follow. 



Scientific method consists, therefore, in close observation, 

 frequently repeated so as to eliminate the possibility of erroneous 

 seeing ; in experiments checked and controlled in every direc- 

 in which fallacies might arise ; in continuous reflection on the 

 appearances and phenomena observed, and in logically reasoning 

 out their meaning and the conclusions to be drawn irom them. 

 Were the method followed out in its integrity by all who are 

 engaged in scientific investigations, the time and labour 

 expended in correcting errors committed by ourselves or by 

 other observers and experimentalists would be saved, and the 

 volumes devoted annually to scientific literature would be 

 materially diminished in size. Were it applied, as far as the 

 conditions of life admit, to the conduct and management of 

 human affairs, we should not require to be told, when critical 

 periods in our welfare as a nation arise, that we shall muddle 

 through somehow. Recent experience has taught us that wise 



NO. 1 6 10, VOL. 62] 



