August, igo6.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



J'-'D 



BritisK Association at 

 York. 



Programme and Prospects. 



This year's meeting of the British Association as- 

 sembles under the happiest auspices at York. No 

 place, unless it be a University, is more in harmony 

 with the conduct and spirit of the British Association 

 than a cathedral town, and in none is the hospitality of 

 a more graceful kind. It is twenty-five years since the 

 British Association met at York, there to celebrate its 

 jubilee; and this accident of chronolog-y affords a ready 

 opportunity for a Presidential Address to summarise 

 the work of the past quarter of a century. In Pro- 

 fessor E. Ray Lankester, Director of the British 



PROFESSOR KAV LANKBSTER. 



Museum of Natural History, ihe Association possesses 

 a President whose ability is peculiarly adapted to the 

 task. Professor Ray Lankester is the one British 

 zoologist of genius, and the one authority to whom the 

 work of other men can be referred for critical examina- 

 tion and appreciation. His insight and knowledge 

 fit him to appraise, as his example has fitted him to 

 inspire, the best work of his time and generation in 

 England. .Such tributes arc tacitly or openly 

 expressed by all those workers in zoology — and in the 

 allied sciences which that substantive includes — whose 

 own work has the merit of insight and originality. But 

 Professor Ray Lankester is more than that to his 

 g'cneration. He is one of the men of science, by no 

 means large in number, who are articulate, whose 

 utterances are coherent in the cars of the multitude, 

 and w'ho is, in the broadest sense, a critic of scientific 

 education and scientific progress. Few men of science 

 in speaking of subjects which are of interest, or which 

 ougiit to lie of interest, to all thinking people, have 



been responsible for more noteworthy utterances; and 

 few have laboured more — with very little popular com- 

 prehension or recognition to encourage them — to ad- 

 vance the cause of science in the nation. It is not 

 customary to disclose any of the particulars of the 

 Presidential Address before its delivery, but it is 

 violating no confidence to say that Professor Ray 

 Lankester's Presidential Address on Wednesday, 

 August I, will reflect both his critical and proselytising 

 activities; and besides summarising a quarter of a 

 century's progress in science, will deal with the national 

 neglect of science in the schools, by the Government, 

 and in commerce. 



The President of the Mathematical and Physical 

 Science Section is Principal E. H. Griffiths, of the 

 University of Wales, much of whose work has been 

 associated with the relation of the units of heat and 

 work. His address will deal, among other subjects, 

 with the present position of the theory of the constitu- 

 tion of the earth's interior, as that theory has been 

 modified by the discovery of radio-active substances. 



Besides the papers to be read in this section, which 

 include one by Sir W. Ramsay on chemical and elec- 

 trical changes induced by ultra-violet light, and one by 

 the Earl of Berkeley on osmotic pressure, there are to 

 be several discussions. Professor Soddy will open one 

 on the evolution of the elements; Mr. J. Swinburne and 

 Dr. H. Rubens, of Charlottenburg, will discuss the 

 radiation from incandescent mantles; and the Hon. 

 R. J. Strutt and Professor J. Milne will speak of the 

 internal structure of the earth. A discussion is also to 

 be opened on the re-measurement of the British 

 geodetic arc. 



Professor Wyndham Dunstan is the President of the 

 Chemical Section, and in his address will speak on the 

 necessity for establishing a Central Government De- 

 partment to deal with the problems of chemistry. Such 

 a department could and would play a most important 

 part in effecting the commercial development of the 

 Colonies, and in regulating and developing the products 

 of the Empire. 



Mr. E. W. Lamplugh is the President of the Geologi- 

 cal Section, and will open up, no doubt for subsequent 

 discussion, the question of " Interglacial Periods." 

 Professor J. W. Gregory will deal with the pakcozoic 

 glaciations of .Australia and South .'\frica, and Pro- 

 fessor J. Milne will contribute notes on recent earth- 

 quakes. Many papers on Yorkshire geology are a 

 natural consequence of the place of meeting. 



Mr. J. J. Lister, F.R.S., is the President of the 

 Zoological Section, and in this section the burning 

 questions of heredity can scarcely fail to be discussed. 

 The subject, however, is not very prominent in the 

 list of papers submitted to the recorder.s of the sec- 

 tion, and the chief subject of general interest appears 

 to be that of the relation of scientific marine investiga- 

 tions in relation to fishery problems. 



Sir George Taubm.in Goldie takes the Presidential 

 chair in the -Section of Geography, and will speak on 

 the growth of modern interest in geography. The 

 following- papers are promised : — The scientific results 

 of the Scottish Loch Survey, James Murray; The 

 Chagos Islands, Indian Ocean, J. Stanley Gardiner; .A 

 Journey across the Sahara, M. E. F. Gautier (not quite 

 certain); The Structure of Southern Nigeria, John 

 Parkinson; The Study of Social Geography, Professor 

 G. W. Hoke, of Ohio State Normal College; A Journey 

 in the Central Hinialay:is, T. G. I.ongstaflf. 



Professor J. .'\. Ewing, as President of the Engineer- 

 ing -Section, will deal with the probable molecular con- 



