78 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



story of the advancement of science there is furth( 

 to be read the essential homogeneity of science as 

 a whole, and the constant interaction and inter- 

 dependence of its several departments. 



A negation of this condition might be inferred 

 from the successive creation of sections in the Associa- 

 tion, which we have next to consider. Actually, 

 there is no such negation, whatever tendency may 

 have supervened, during the later part of our period, 

 toward specialisation by individual scientific workers 

 in particular directions of study. The formation 

 of our sections may be viewed from two different 

 angles, to each of which an aspect of homogeneity, 

 after all, is common. In the first place, those who 

 practice in a pure science, or a group of pure sciences, 

 come together to form such sections as those of 

 mathematics and physics, chemistry, geology, or the 

 biological sections. Secondly, we have the common 

 interests of those who teach, whatever science they 

 teach ; of those who travel or study geography, with 

 whatever sister science (if any) they are also con- 

 cerned ; of those who are interested in economic and 

 statistical applications ; of those who apply science, 

 of whatever department, to agriculture : and so forth. 

 Thus it comes about that we encounter demands 

 for sections of education, of geography, of economics, 

 of agriculture. The constitution of the Association, 

 being elastic, can adapt itself to such demands of 

 science as it progresses : it is unique among the major 

 scientific bodies in the United Kingdom as possessing 

 that elasticity, and admitting the widest possible 

 range of scientific interest. But, as we shall see, 

 it also endeavours to bring kindred departments of 

 science together on common ground. 



