A RETROSPECT 



1831-1921 



CHAPTER I 

 FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS 



The period of the foundation Brewster's views on the position of science 

 The Deutscher Naturforscher Versammlung Brewster and the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society : Phillips and Harcourt The first 

 meeting : York, 1831 Recollections of early meetings (Brewster : 

 Murchison : Sedgwick : Whewell) -Opposition to the Association. 



THE PERIOD OF THE FOUNDATION 



THE British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was founded in 1831. 



The circumstances of its foundation may be 

 briefly correlated with the history of the time. In 

 1814 the Peninsular War was brought to a suc- 

 cessful issue. Napoleon abdicated, to return in the 

 following year to momentary power, which was 

 finally brought low at Waterloo. The war, in 

 England, had been (as in the present generation) 

 the preoccupation of every man ; its aftermath, 

 too, exhibits certain obvious parallels with the 

 circumstances of the present day. The period of 



