42 



INTRODUCTION. 



intercourse between men of science was greatly promoted 

 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 which held its first meeting at York in 1831. Associa- 

 tions and meetings of this kind had their origin ten years 

 earlier in Germany through Oken ; ^ but the line in which 

 Germany has done most is the establishing of and con- 

 tinuing annual Reports ^ of the progress of the different 



in Edinburgh ('Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, 'started 

 in 1788), and somewhat later like- 

 wise in Dublin (' Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of Dublin,' started 

 1799), and Manchester ('Memoirs 

 of the Manchester Philosophical 

 Society,' started in 1789). Many 

 of the first scientific writers of the 

 age published in these provincial 

 papers or in separate pamphlets 

 the want of a common collecting 

 centre being very obvious. 



^ Alexander v. Humboldt sup- 

 ported them, and was instrumental 

 in giving to the Assembly at Berlin 

 in 18'2S which he called "The in- 

 vasion of philosophers" a special 

 importance. It was, as he says, 

 " a noble manifestation of scientific 

 union in Germany ; it presents the 

 spectacle of a nation divided in 

 politics and religion, revealing its 

 nationality in the realm of intellec- 

 tual progress." Bruhns, 'Life of 

 A. V. Humboldt,' vol. ii. p. 130. 

 The British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science was (as Prof. 

 Owen informs us) at the outset 

 avowedly organised after the Oken- 

 ian model. ' Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica,' art. "Oken." 



'^ The first reports aiming at 

 giving a statement of the position 

 of Science were those drawn up by 

 Delambre and Cuvier at the request 

 of the Emperor Napoleon I., and 

 presented in the year ISOS under 

 the title ' Discours sur les Progres 

 des Sciences, Lettres, et Arts depuis 



1789 jusqu'^ ce jour ' (1808). They 

 were imitated on a larger scale by 

 the Emperor Napoleon III., on the 

 occasion of the great Paris Exhibi- 

 tion 1867, and have been continued 

 under the Republic. Of the report 

 of 1808 Cuvier says, " Ce tableau 

 historique nous servira desormais 

 de point de depart et nos rapports 

 annuels en seront autant de con- 

 tinuations." He also adds signifi- 

 cantly, " Dans les relations actives 

 oil nous nous trouvons avec la 

 plupart de ceux C|ui cultivent les 

 sciences, il est bien difficile qu'ils se 

 fassent en Europe quelques decou- 

 vertes importantes sans que le 

 bruit en reteutisse promptement 

 dans cette enceinte, et nous excite 

 a des travaux qui s'y rapportent 

 plus ou moins directement. " 



By far the most important work 

 of reporting and summarising the 

 results of scientific labour has been 

 done by Germany. The first publi- 

 cation of this kind, however, origin- 

 ated with Berzelius, who from the 

 year 1821 reported regularly to the 

 Academy of Stockholm on the pro- 

 gress of the physical sciences. Of 

 Berzelius's periodical Kopp says 

 ('Geschichte der Chemie,' vol. i. p. 

 403), that it "summarises with the 

 greatest completeness all that had 

 been done in chemistry since 1820." 

 This work, which regularly ap- 

 peared in German translation, was 

 continued in Liebig's ' Jahresbericht 

 der Chemie ' (1847). In Berlin the 

 ' Physikalische Gesellschaft ' has 



