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;g3nti6l) llooociafion for f^c ^6uanccmcnf of 



Science. 



MANCHESTER, 1887. 



ADDRESS 

 SIR HENRY E.^ROSCOE, 



M.P., D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D., F.Pt.S., V.P.C.S., 

 PRESIDENT. 



Manchester, distinguished as the birthplace of two of the greatest 

 discoveries of modern science, heartily welcomes to-day for the third time 

 the members and friends of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. 



On the occasion of our first meeting in this city in the year 1842 the 

 President, Lord Francis Egerton, commenced his address with a touching 

 allusion to the veteran of science, John Dalton, the great chemist, the 

 discoverer of the laws of chemical combination, the framer of the atomic 

 theory upon which the modern science of chemistry may truly be said to 

 be based. Lord Francis Egerton said : ' Manchester is still the residence 

 of one whose name is uttered with respect wherever science is cultivated, 

 who is here to-night to enjoy the honours due to a long career of persever- 

 ing devotion to knowledge, and to receive from myself, if he will con- 

 descend to do so, the expression of my own deep personal regret that 

 increase of years, which to him up to this hour has been but increase of 

 wisdom, should have rendered him in respect of mere bodily strength un- 

 able to fill on this occasion an oflSce which in his case would have received 

 more honour than it could confer. I do regret that any cause should have 

 prevented the present meeting in his native town from being associated 

 with the name * — and here I must ask you to allow me to exchange the 

 name of Dalton in 1842 for that of Joule in 1887, and to add again in the 

 words of the President of the former year that I would gladly have served 

 as a doorkeeper in any house where Joule, the father of science in Man- 

 chester, was enjoying his just pre-eminence. 



For it is indeed true that the mantle of John Dalton has fallen on the 

 shoulders of one well worthy to wear it, one to whom science owes a debt 

 1887. A 



