July, 1905.J 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



167 



PROF. H. A. MIERS, F.R.S. 



Prof. Henry Alexander Mierr, Waynflete Professor of Mineralogy in 

 the University of Oxford, is President of Section C, Geolrgy. Formerly he 

 was an Assistant in the Department of Minerals, Brit'sh Museum (Natural 

 History). He is Ihe author cf many memoirs in mineralogy and crysta'- 

 lography. 



MR. O. A. BOULENaER, P.R.S. 



Mr. George Albert Boulenoer, of the Department of Zoology, British 

 Museum (Natural History), is President of Section D, Zoology. He is the 

 author of reference works on Batrachia, Lizaa-ds, Chelonians, and Crocodiles, 

 and is an authority on the fishes of Africa. 



establish a British Association of Men of Science, similar to 

 that which has existed for eight years in Germany and which 

 is now patronised by the most powerful sovereigns in that 

 part of Europe. The arrangements for the first meeting are 

 in progress, and it is contemplated that it shall be held in 

 York, as the most central city of the three kingdoms. My 

 object in writing to yon at present is to beg that yon would 

 ascertain if York will furnish the accommodation necessary 

 for so large a meeting, which might perhaps consist of 100 

 individuals; if the Philosophical Society would enter zealously 

 into the plan, and if the Mayor and influential persons in the 

 town and in the vicinity would be likely to promote its objects. 

 The principal objects of the Society would be to make the 

 cultivators of science acquainted with each other; to stimu- 

 late one another to new exertions; to bring the objects of 

 science before the public eye, and to take measures for 

 advancing its interests and accelerating their progress. The 

 Society would possess no fund, make no collections, hold no 

 property, the expense of each anniversary meeting being 

 defrayed by the members who are present. 



" As these few observations will enable you to form a 

 general opinion of the object in view, I shall only add that 

 the time of meeting which is likely to be most convenient would 

 be about the iSth or 25th of July. 



" I am, dear Sir, 



" Ever most truly yours, 



" D. Brewster." 



"J. Phillips, Esq." 



The Philosophical Society and the civic authorities 

 of York viewed the proposition with every mark of 

 favour, and it was arranged that the inaugural meeting 

 of the Association should be held in the Yorkshire 

 Museum on Tuesday, September 27, 183 1, the first 

 President to be Viscount Milton, F.R.S. At this 

 gathering the admirable Statement of Objects, drawn 

 in almost identical terms with those which appear at the 

 head of this notice, was unanimously adopted as Iho 

 mitial propaganda of the Association, and thus it 

 remains to-day. 



The second President of the Association was the 

 Rev. William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S., Professor of 

 Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Oxford, 

 and the meeting took "place in that city. It has been 

 chronicled by one who. was present that Buckland was 

 the life of the whole assembly. Curiously enough no 

 numerical record seems to have been kept of the 

 attendance of members. The third meeting was held 

 under the patronage of the sister University, Cam- 

 bridge, the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, F.R.S., presiding, 

 after which Edinburgh and Dublin had their turn and 

 the Association was then fairly launched. 



It would be tedious to detail the successive doings of 

 the Association year by year, or relate how it has 

 gradually grown in power and usefulness. Annually 

 some suitable provincial town is chosen as the venue, 

 and one visit does not preclude another. But the 

 Association never meets in London. The Presidents 

 have always been selected with a real regard to the 

 position and authority they hold in the branch or 

 branches of science they represent, and it is to this 

 jealous care that much of the repute the Association 

 now enjoys is due. Then, too, their addresses in them- 

 selves furnish an epitome of the progress of science. 

 Nor should the loyal services of the General 

 Officers be overlooked ; some of them, indeed, 

 will be seen to have directed the helm of affairs for long 

 periods. Incidentally it may be mentioned that His 

 Royal Highness the Prince Consort was President of 

 the meeting held at Aberdeen in 1859. 



The work of the British Association is carried on in 

 ( eleven Sections, which represent, as it were, the cycle 



