402 



NATURE 



[Sept. I, 1 88 1 



movement, the position of the sun and moon, the distri- 

 bution of temperature, and the situation in latitude and 

 longitude." 



We must bear in mind, however, that the great mass of 

 members at any one meeting are not made up of scien- 

 tific men who can appreciate the full development of a 

 train of ideas or results, but of people who have not the 

 advantages of attending the meetings of the London 

 scientific societies, or of being an couraitt with scientihc 

 progress, and we may fitly inquire by what means their 

 interests are best served. The President's address is per- 

 haps the most powerful stimulus. Such addresses usually 

 belong to one of three classes : — they are either distin- 

 guished by a fine display of oratory ; or by the discussion 

 of some leading theory concerning which the president 

 has a right to speak (-.r cathedra ; or they give a resume 

 uf the scientific progress of the year. This last is of the 

 greatest utility to the general run of members. Some- 

 times the three classes are judiciously combined, and 

 these addresses are commonly the be^t of all. In former 

 years the Presidential Address was very short, and chiclly 

 discussed the results obtained by the Commiitees, and 

 the Reports thereon. Occasionally an unscientific noble- 

 man has opened the proceedings by a quasi after-dinner 

 speech, while anon we have a sophistical declamation 

 dealing with some of the burning questions of the hour, 

 and disposing of them bravely. 



Many cities have received the Association twice, but 

 few three times. York will now be one of the latter, but it 

 is thirty-six years since the last meeting was held there. 

 Murchison called it the "cradle of the Association," and 

 at the second York meeting the tickets bore the inscrip- 

 tion, Aniiquam exquirite Matrein. If the Association 

 carries out the ideas of its founders, we may fairly hope 

 that a centennial and even a millennial meeting will be 

 held in the place of its birth. The city has many objects 

 of interest : it possesses convenient accommodation for 

 all the sections, and a number of important manufac- 

 tories can be easily visited from it. The local committee 

 have issued an extremely useful programme of their 

 arrangements, which not only contains all the necessary 

 information concerning trains, posts, lodgings, and the 

 places of meeting, but also articles on the zoology, 

 botany, and geology of the neighbourhood, and a de- 

 scription of the various excursions. An interesting 

 article on " The York Founders of the Association" 

 is contributed by Archdeacon Hey. An exhibition 

 of art and industrial produce, and a collection of 

 scientific apparatus, will be open during the week. Four 

 excursions are organised for Saturday, September 3 : 

 to Scarborough ; to Castle Howard ; to Helmsley and 

 Rievaulx ; and to Brimham Kocks and Harrogate. On 

 the following Thursday there will be seven excursions ; 

 to Bolton Abbey and the Strid ; to Cleveland ; a coast 

 excursion ; to Gristhorpe, Speeton, and Scarborough ; to 

 Whitby; toWensleydale; and to Aid oorough and Borough- 

 bridge. Among the more important manufactories which 

 will be visited are the telescope works of Messrs. Cooke 

 and Sons, the workshops of the North Eastern Railway, 

 the York glass works, and some extensive confectionery 

 works. Naturalists will be glad to learn that the county 

 possesses a fauna which comprises 513 out of the 717 

 British Vertebrata, viz. 46 mammals, 307 birds, 12 rep- 

 tiles, and 148 fishes. It also furnishes 71 per cent, of 

 the British flowering-plants and ferns. Geologically the 

 county consists of rounded Chalk Hills, Oolite overlying 

 the Lias, Trias covered with glacial drift and alluvial' de- 

 posit, and a narrow band of Permian strata. Many 

 opportunities will be afforded to members of studying 

 the geology of the district. 



The famous Kirkdale Cave, which was the first to be 

 scientifically e.xamined, gave rise to the Yorkshire Philo- 

 sophical Society. The numerous remains found in it 

 became the basis of a museum, and to it was attached the 



scientific society of which John Phillips was one of the 

 secretaries. The idea of the Association was broached 

 by Brewster in a letter to Phillips. The Council of the 

 Yorkshire Society issued the first invitations, and its 

 president, vice president, treasurer, and secretaries filled 

 the same offices at the first meeting of the Association. 

 The writer of an able article in the Times of last Friday 

 points out that in place of the few philosophical societies 

 of fifty years ago there are now a hundred or two scattered 

 all over the country often doing good work, which is to a 

 great extent lost or wasted because inaccessible to the 

 scientific world, and he suggests that the Association 

 should act as a bond of union between these societies, 

 proposing methods of work and special kinds of research 

 suitable to the particular district. This might surely be 

 done with great advantage in the case of the natural 

 history sciences and geology ; and we think the idea is 

 worthy the attention of the Association. If, furthermore, 

 it could publish a resume of the more important results 

 obtained by the several local societies during each year, 

 it would be a boon to scientific literature. 



As might have been expected, the "Jubilee Meeting" 

 of the Association is likely to attract an unusually large 

 gathering. On Tuesday upwards of 1500 names had been 

 enrolled. The special character of the meeting is likely 

 to have an influencenot only on the pre^idential addresses, 

 but on the nature of the entire proceedings. 



Inaugural Audress ev Sir John Luebock, Bart., M.P.. 

 F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., President 



In the name of the British Association, which for the time I 

 very unworthily represent, I be^ to tender to you, my Lord 

 Mayor, and through you to the City of Ytjrk, our cordial thanks 

 for your hospitable invitation and hearty welcome. 



We feel, indeed, that in coming to York we are coming home : 

 gratefully as we acknowledge and much as we appreciate the 

 kindne-s we have experienced elsewhere, and the friendly 

 rclation> which exist between this Association and most — I might 

 even say, all — our great cities, yet Sir R. Murchison truly observed 

 at the close of our first meeting in 1S31, that to York, "as the 

 cradle of the Association, we shall ever look back w ith gratitude ; 

 and whether we meet hereafter on the banks of the Isis, the Cam, 

 or the Forth, to this spot we shall still fondly revert." Indeed, 

 it would have been a matter of much regret 10 all of us, if we 

 had not been able on this, our fiftieth anniversary, t5 hold our 

 meedng in our mother city. 



My Lord Mayor, before going further, I must express my 

 regret, especially when I call to mind the illustrious men who 

 have preceded me in this chair, that it has not fallen to one of 

 my eminent friends around me, to preside on this auspicious 

 occasion. Conscious, however, as I am of my own deficiencies, 

 I feel that I must not v aste time in dvvelling on them, more 

 especially as in doing so I should but give them greater promin- 

 ence. I will, therefore, only make one earnest appeal to your 

 kind indulgence. 



The connection of the British Association with the City of 

 York does not depend merely on the fact that our first meeting 

 was held here. It originated in a letter addi-essed by Sir U. 

 Brewster to Prof. Phillips, as Secretary lo your York Philo- 

 sophical Society, by whom the idea was warmly taken up. The 

 fir-it meeting was held on September 26, 1831, the chair being 

 taken by Lord Milton, v^ho delivered an address, after which 

 Mr. William Vernon Harcourt, Chairman of the Committee 

 of Management, submitted to the meeting a co le of rules which 

 had been so maturely considered, and so w isely framed, that 

 they have remained substantially the same down to the present 

 day. 



The constitution and objects of the Association were so ably 

 described by Mr. Spottiswoode, at Dublin, and are .so well 

 known to you, that I will not dwell on them this evening. The 

 excellent President of the Royal Society, in the same address, 

 suggested that the past history of the Association would form au 

 appropriate theme for the pre ent meeting. The history of 

 the Association, however, is really the history of science, and 

 I long shrank from the attempt to give even a panoramic 

 survey of a subject so vast and so difficult ; nor should I have 

 ventured to make any such attempt, but that I knew I could 



