September io, 1903] 



NATURE 



447 



shall no longer remain unorganised. I have endeavoured to 

 point out to you how the nation at present suffers from the 

 absence of a powerful, continuous, reasoned expression of scien- 

 tific opinion, urging in season and out of season that we shall 

 be armed as other nations are with efficient universities and 

 facilities for research to uphold the flag of Britain in the 

 domain of learning and discovery, and what they alone can 

 bring. 



I have also endeavoured to show how, when this is done, the 

 nation will still be less strong than it need be if there be not 

 added to our many existing councils another, to secure that, even 

 during peace, the benefits which a proper coordination of 

 scientific effort in the nation's interest can bring shall not be 

 neglected as they are at present. 



Lest some of you may think that the scientific organisation 

 which I trust you will determine to found would risk success in 

 working on such large lines, let me remind you that in 1859, 

 when the late Prince Consort occupied this chair, he referred to 

 "impediments" to scientific progress, and said, " they are often 

 such as can only be successfully dealt with by the powerful arm 

 of the State or the long purse of the nation." 



If the Prince Consort had lived 10 continue his advocacy of 

 science, our position to-day would have been very different. 

 His early death was as bad for Britain as the loss of a great 

 campaign. If we cannot regain what we have lost, matters can- 

 not mend. 



I have done what I feel to be my duty in bringing the 

 present condition of things before you. It is now your duty, 

 if you agree with me, to see that it be put right. You can if 

 you will. 



SECTION A. 

 mathematics and physics. 



Opening Address by Charles Vernon Boys, F".R.S., 

 President of the Section. 



The first duty of every occupant of this Chair is a sad 

 one. Year by year the record grows of those who have 

 devoted their lives to the development of mathematical and 

 physical science, of those who have completed their work. 

 The past year has added many names to the record — more, 

 it seems, than its fair share. The names include some of 

 the most brilliant and active of our race, of those to whom 

 this .Association is deeply indebted, and also of our fellow 

 workmen in other countries whose loss is no less to be 

 deplored. 



Lord Salisbury's devotion to the empire, of which this 

 is not the occasion to speak, left him but little time for 

 those scientific pursuits in which he took so keen an interest. 

 Once, however, as President of this Association, he showed 

 our members that, unlike the majority of our statesmen, 

 science was not to him a phantom. His Address at Oxford 

 will remain in the memories of all who heard it. The 

 eloquence, the humour, the satire, the subtlety provided an 

 intellectual treat cf the rarest kind. 



Of Sir Gecrge Gabriel Slokes and his work it is not 

 possible for me to speak. Any attempt on my part to 

 appreciate or gauge the value of the work of such a giant 

 would be an impertinence. This can only fitly be done by 

 one cf our leaders, and Lord Kelvin has paid a fitting 

 tribute in the pages of Nature. I can only record the fact 

 that Stokes was for seven years Secretary, and twice Presi- 

 dent of this Section, ^nd in 1869 was President of the 

 Association. 



Dr. Gladstone, for fifty-three years a member of this 

 Association, was not only an unfailing attendant at our 

 meetings, but an active member whose steady stream of 

 original communications on subjects connecting physics and 

 chemistry earned for him the designation of Creator of 

 Physical Chemistry. His investigations on spectroscopy, 

 refractivity and electrclytics are known to every student of 

 physics. His researches upon early metallurgical history, 

 while of less importance to the progress of science, are 

 none the less interesting. .\n ardent apostle of education, 

 he was for twenty-one years a member of the London School 

 Board, and three years vice-chairman. Dr. Gladstone was 

 the first President of the Physical Society. He has been 

 President of the Chemical Society, and at the last meeting 

 of the British Association at Southport — as also in 1872 — 

 he was President of the Chemical Section. So long ago, he 



said, in urging the importance of science as a factor in 

 education, that the so-called educated classes were not only 

 ignorant of science, but had not arrived at the knowledge 

 of their own ignorance. 



It is not possible to pass on without paying a tribute, 

 in which all who knew Dr. Gladstone will share, to his 

 character no less than to his genius. 



Sir William Roberts-Austen was probably one of the most 

 active members that this Association has known. Not only 

 had he for many years made the subject of metals and 

 alloys his own, but he worked for the Association in many 

 wavs. At three meetings have audiences been charmed by 

 his' fascinating and brilliant evening lectures, all relating 

 to metals. He was President of the Chemical Section at 

 the Cardiff meeting in 1891, and not only did he perform 

 these duties, but he accepted the more laborious and more 

 thankless task, for which his unfailing courtesy and tact 

 so well fitted him, of acting as our General Secretary for 

 four years. His labours in the important field of research 

 which he tilled were appreciated by numerous technical 

 societies and institutions of which he was an honorary 

 member, or had been president or vice-president. Many 

 branches of the public service had the advantage of his skill 

 and experience, which received the official reward in 1899. 



Dr. Common's skill as a designer and constructor of 

 instruments was well known. His instinct or judgment in 

 producing planes and figured concave mirrors of great 

 dimensions was rare, for this is an art almost unknown in 

 the laboratory. His generosity and his valu'able advice have 

 been appreciated by many besides myself. 



Rev H W. Watson, Second Wrangler and Smith s Prize- 

 man in 1850. was a Vice-President of the British Associ- 

 ation in 18S6. Mathematical physicists are familiar with 

 the joint work of himself and Burbury on Generalised 

 Co-ordinates," and with his mathematical articles. 



In Otto Hilger, the brother of the late Adam Hilger, 

 who between them brought to this country German 

 thoroughness and French skill in instrument manufacture, 

 we have lost one of our first and most valuable constructors. 

 Noted for the high class of all the optical work turned out 

 bv the firm. Otto Hilger was not afraid of attacking the 

 problem of manufacturing the Michelson echelon grating. 

 This little bundle of glass plates requires for its success 



perfection and precision commen 



surable only with the genius 



of the inventor. This Otto Hilger supplied. 



Dean Farrar, a life member of the British Association, 

 whose activity lay in another direction, showed his appreci- 

 ation of the value of science in education by appointing the 

 first science master at Marlborough when he became head- 

 master in the year 1870. As I was a boy at the school at 

 that time, I can speak of the incredulity with vvhich such 

 an announcement was at first received and of the general 

 feeling that such an action was akin to a ]oke. I was, 

 however by no means the onlv boy who hailed the news 

 with delight. We devoured the feast of chemistry and 

 physics put before us by Rodwell and the books which at 

 once became available. Out of gratitude to the late Dean 

 of Canterbury I recall this episode. 



lames Wimshurst, the inventor of the influence machine 

 which has carried his name into every corner of the scien- 

 tific world was not a member of this Association, but he 

 fostered and encouraged the scientific spirit in young men 

 who bv good fortune, came to know him. I do not think 

 I have' heard anyone spoken of with such gratitude and 

 appreciation as VVimshurst, by men who in their younger 

 days were allowed the run of his well-equipped workshop. 



Tames Glaisher, best known as a balloonist in the sixties, 

 has died at the great age of ninety-three. 1 he balloon 

 ascent with Coxwell on September 5, 1862, when they 

 attained the altitude of 37,000 feet, will long remain in the 

 popular imagination, not on account simply of the great 

 altitude, but by reason of the sensational account of their 

 having been paralysed with cold, and of their being able 

 to stop the ever-increasing ascent onlv by the presence of 

 mind of Coxwell, who, with his limbs frozen, seized the 

 valve rope with his teeth, and so let out the gas. 



While this event remains in everyone's mind, the more 

 prosaic work of Glaisher in astronomy, meteorology, and 

 photography, when most of us were children, and many 

 yet unborn; led to his being elected president of various 

 learned societies. 



NO. T767, VOL. 68] 



