NATURE 



43, 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



Leeds, Tuesday Evening. 

 TT is 32 years since the British Association met at 

 Leeds, this being only its second visit, though it has 

 frequently enough held its meetings in Yorkshire during 

 that period. The President of 1858, Sir Richard Owen, 

 happily still survives, though most of his eminent col- 

 leagues of the year have quitted the field — Sir John 

 Herschel, Sir David Brewster, Sir Roderick Murchison 

 Sir Benjamin Brodie, Robert Stephenson, Phillips, Darwin' 

 Nasmyth. But the names of Huxley, Francis Galton' 

 and others then coming into prominence, are found 

 among the list of those who contributed to the proceed- 

 ings of the meeting. Vast changes have taken place 

 both in Leeds and in science during these 32 years — 

 changes which we need not record here. Leeds during 

 the interval has risen to its present prominence and pros- 

 perity mainly through the application of the discoveries 

 of science, and therefore it seems appropriate that this 

 year's President should be one who himself during 30 

 years has had so much to do with the application of 

 these discoveries. As will be seen, Sir Frederick Abel's 

 address deals largely with his own work in this direction. 



So far as can be judged at present, the local authorities 

 have done everything they could to render the meeting a 

 success. All the best buildings in the town have been 

 placed at the disposal of the Association. The Reception 

 Room is spacious and handsome, and, so far as I have 

 seen, the Sectional rooms are all that could be desired. 

 The most thoughtful care has been taken for the com- 

 fort and convenience of the visitors. The Sectional 

 Secretaries have seldom been so well housed. Their 

 hotel is just opposite the Reception Room, and not only 

 have well-furnished writing and dining rooms been 

 placed at their disposal, but a handsome billiard room 

 with three tables, on which the Secretaries of Section A 

 hope to work out some abstruse problems. The Guide- 

 book to Leeds, which has been prepared under the 

 editorship of Prof Miall, is well packed with useful in- 

 formation and guidance, and is handy enough to go into 

 the pocket. A small pamphlet gives full details as to all 

 the arrangements of the meeting, and another all the 

 information about excursions. 



As to the general work of the Sections, it is probable 

 that it will be up to the average. So far as I can learn^ 

 there is no paper as yet of striking or sensational im- 

 portance. There will, however, be several discussions 

 that are likely to have useful results. In Section A, 

 for example, there will be a discussion on electrical units, 

 and possibly another on mechanical units and nomen- 

 clature. In Section D, again, there will be a discussion 

 on the teaching of botany, in connection with which 

 papers will be read by Dr. F. Oliver, Dr. Scott, and 

 Prof Marshall Ward, and in which Mr. F. Darwin, Prof. 

 Bower, and others, will take part. A joint meeting will 

 be held, on Monday, of Sections E and F, for the con- 

 sideration of the important subject of the lands of the 

 globe still available for settlement. One of the most 

 striking papers in Section G will be one by Mr. Read 

 NO. 1088, VOL. 42] 



Murphy (a native of Australia), on the Victorian torpedo. 

 The Anthropological Laboratory will be at work this year 

 again, though unfortunately it has been located at a 

 distance from the meeting-room of Section H. Public 

 and private hospitality, it need hardly be said, will be 

 lavish. 



Inaugural Address by Sir P'rederick Augustus Abel, 

 C.B., D.C.L. (OxoN.), D.Sc. (Cant.), F.R.S., P.P.C.S., 

 Hon.M.Inst.C.E., President. 



Many who had the pleasure of listening last year, at New- 

 castle, to the interesting and instructive address of the Presi- 

 dent to whom I am a most unworthy successor, could not fail, 

 both by the chief subject of his discourse, and by the circum- 

 stance of the official position which he occupies with so much 

 benefit to science and the public, to have their thoughts directed 

 to the illustrious naturalist whose philosophical address delighted 

 the members of the Association and the people of Leeds thirty- 

 two years ago. 



More than one-half the period of existence of this Association 

 has passed since Richard Owen presided over its meeting in this 

 town. Alas ! what gaps have been created in the ranks of those 

 who then were prominent for activity in advancing its work : the 

 then General Secretary, Sir Edward Sabine ; the all-popular 

 Assistant-General Secretary, John Phillips ; the Treasurer, John 

 Taylor, now live with us only through their works and the 

 enduring esteem which they inspired. But very few of those 

 who held other prominent positions at that meeting have sur- 

 vived to see the Association reassemble in this town. Whewell, 

 Herschel, Hopkins, the elder Brodie, Murchison, William 

 Fairbairn, all Presidents of Sections in 1858, have long since 

 been removed from among us ; and the then President of Sec- 

 tion F, Edward Baines, a much-honoured and highly-talented 

 son of the "Franklin of Leeds," whom we had hoped to count 

 among those Vice-Presidents representing the city on this 

 occasion, has recently passed away, in his ninetieth year, after a 

 most honourable and useful career, during which he especially 

 distinguished himself by his successful exertions in the advance- 

 ment of the great educational movements of his time. 



The illustrious President of our last meeting here, concerning 

 whose health the gravest apprehensions were not long since 

 entertained, is happily still preserved to us ; still intellectually 

 bright at the ripe age of eighty- six, and still, with the keen 

 pleasure of his early life, following the progress of those 

 branches of scientific research which have constituted the 

 favourite occupations and the arena of many intellectual 

 triumphs of a long career of ardent and successful devotion to 

 the advancement of science. 



To not a few of those who have flocked to Leeds to attend 

 the annual gathering of this Association, our present meeting- 

 place is doubtless known chiefly by its proud position as one of 

 the most thriving manufacturing towns of the United Kingdom ; 

 of ancient renown, especially in connection with one of the 

 chief industries identified with Great Britain in years past. 

 But this good town of Leeds, whose cloth market was described 

 by Daniel Defoe, one hundred and sixty odd years ago, as " a 

 prodigy of its kind, and not to be equalled in the world," and 

 whose present position in connection with divers of our great 

 industries would have equally excited the enthusiasm of that 

 graphic writer, is famous for other things than its prominent 

 association with manufactures and commerce. 



Not many of our great industrial centres can boast of so 

 goodly an array, upon the scroll of their past history, of names 

 of men eminent in the Sciences, the Arts and Manufactures, in 

 Divinity and Letters, and in heroic achievements, such as are 

 identified with Leeds and its immediate vicinity : Thomas, Lord 

 Fairfax, one of the most prominent heroes of the Common- 

 wealth ; Smeaton, an intellectual giant among engineers ; 

 William Hirst and John Marshall, illustrious examples of the 

 men who by their genius, energy, and perseverance placed 

 Great Britain upon the pinnacle of industrial and commercial 

 greatness which she so long occupied unassailed ; Richard 

 Bentley, the eminent classic and divine ; John Nicholson, the 

 Airedale poet ; John Fowler and Peter Fairbairn, worthy 

 followers in the footsteps of Smeaton ; Isaac Milner, weaver 

 and mathematician, afterwards Senior Wrangler, Smith's Prize- 

 man, Jacksonian Professor, President of Queen's College, Vice- 

 Chancellor of Cambridge University, Dean of Carlisle, and a 



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