RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 249 



competent to command material support on the score 

 of a prompt return from its practical application, and 

 that is why such a body as our Association, able to 

 judge upon internal evidence of both the immediate 

 and the permanent value of any piece of scientific 

 work, should also possess the means to help forward 

 that work, unless some more appropriate source can 

 be found upon which to draw. 



And even if this particular field for the expendi- 

 tur.e of its funds by the Association were to become 

 narrowed until applications fell short of the available 

 sum (which as yet is very far from probability), 

 there would emerge other measures to which the 

 Association could devote its substance and its 

 influence in aid of science. From time to time 

 proposals have been made (in presidential addresses 

 and elsewhere) to this end : Lockyer's address in 

 1903 supplies a case in point ; but this is not the 

 place to discuss such schemes. One, however, which 

 has modestly and tentatively revealed itself in very 

 recent years may be recorded here as having been 

 brought to the point of practical trial : we refer to it 

 as typical, not isolated. In 1895 Galton pointed 

 out how ' the British Association presents to the 

 young student during its week of meetings easy 

 and continuous social opportunities for making the 

 acquaintance of leaders in science, and thereby ob- 

 taining their directing influence.' But it was not 

 until 1920-21, when it became obvious that young 

 workers, in view of the difficulties of the times, 

 could not in any large numbers be expected to find 

 means to attend our annual meetings, that a limited 

 number of science students were invited, on the 

 nomination of certain universities and colleges, and 



