Sept. I, i8Si] 



NATURE 



413 



In Agriculture the changes which have occurred in the period 

 since 1S31 have been immense. The last half century has wit- 

 nessed the introduction of the modern system of subsoil drainage 

 founded on the experiments of Smith of Deanston. The thrash- 

 ing and drilling machines were the most advanced forms of 

 machinery in use in 1831. Since then there have been intro- 

 duced the steam-plough ; the mowing-machine ; the reaping- 

 machine, which not only cuts the corn but binds it into sheaves ; 

 while the steam-engine thrashes out the grain and builds the 

 ricks. .Science has thus greatly reduced the actual ctA of labour, 

 and yet it has increased the wages of the labourer. 



It was to the British Association, at Glasgow in 1841, that 

 Baron Liebig first communicated his work " On the Application of 

 Chemistry to Vegetable Physiology, "while we have also from time 

 to time received accounts of the perevering and impirtant ex- 

 periments which Mr. Lawes, viiith the assistance of Dr. Gilbert, has 

 now carried on for more than forty years at Rothamsted, and 

 which have given so great an impulse to agriculture by directing 

 attention to the principles of cropping, and by leading to the 

 more philosophical application of manures. 



I feel that i'l quitting Section F so soon, I owe an apology to 

 our fellow-workers in that branch of science, but I doubt not 

 that my shortcomings will be more than made up for by the 

 address of their excellent President, Mr. Grant-llulT, whose 

 appointment to the governorship of Madras, wdiile occasioning 

 so sad a loss to his friends, will unquestionably prove a great 

 advantage to India, and materially conduce to the progress of 

 science in that country. 



Moreover, several other subjects of much importance, which 

 might have been referred to in connection with these latter 

 Sections, I have already dealt with under their more purely 

 scientific aspect. 



Indeed, one very marked feature in modern discovery is the 

 manner in which distinct branches of science have thrown, and 

 are throwing, light on one another. Thus the study of geo- 

 graphical distribution of living beings, to the knowledge of 

 which our late general .secretary, Mr. .Sclater, has so greatly 

 contributed, has done much to illustrate ancient geography. 

 The existence of high northern forms in the Pyrenees and Alps 

 points to the existence of a period of cold when Arctic species 

 occupied the whole of habitable Europe. Wallace's line — as it 

 has been justly named after that distinguished naturalist — points 

 to the very ancient separation between the Malayan and 

 Australian regions ; and the study of cor.als has thrown light 

 upon the nature and significance of atolls and barrier-reefs. 



In studying the antiquity of man, the ai-chajologist has to 

 invoke the aid of the chemist, the geologist, the physicist and 

 the mathematician. The recent progi-ess in astronomy is greatly 

 due to physics and chemistry. In geoligy the composition of 

 rocks is a question of chemi-try ; the determination of the 

 boundaries of the differ'ent formations falls within the limits of 

 geography ; while paleontology is the biology of the past. 



And now I must conclude. I fear I ought to apologise to you 

 for keeping you so long, but still more strongly do I wi-h to 

 express my regret that there are almost innumerable researches 

 of great interest and importance which fall within the List fifty 

 years (irrany even among those with which our Association has 

 been connected) to which I have found it impossible to refer. 

 Such for instance are, in biology alone, Owen's memorable report 

 on the homologies of the vertebrate skeleton. Carpenter's 

 laborious r'esearches on the microscopic structnr'e of shells, the 

 reports on marine zoology by Allman, Forbes, Jeffi-eys, S pence 

 Bate, Norman, and others ; on Kent's Cavern by Pengelly ; those 

 by Duncan on corals ; Woodward on cru-tacea: ; Carruthers, 

 Williamson, and others on fossil botany, and nnny more. 

 Indeed no one who has not had occasion to study the progress 

 of science throughout its various departments can have any idea 

 how enormous — how unprecedented — the advance has been. 



Though it is difficult, indeed impossible, to measure exactly 

 the extent of the inflirence exercised by this Association, no one 

 can doubt that it has been very considerable. For my own part, 

 I mirst acknowledge with gratitude how much the interest of my 

 life has been enhanced by the stimulus of our meetings, by the 

 lectures and memoirs to which I have had the advantage of 

 listening, and above all, by the many friendships which I owe 

 to this Association. 



Summing up the principal results which have been attained 

 in the last half-century we may mention (over and above the 

 accumulation of facts) the theory of evolution, the antiquity of 

 man, and the far greater antiquity of the world itself ; the 



correlation of physical forces and the conservation of energy ; 

 spectrum analysis and its application to celestial physics ; the 

 higher algebra and the modern geometry ; lastly, the innumer- 

 able applications of science to practical life — as, for instance, in 

 photography, the locomotive engine, the el»ctric telegraph, the 

 spectroscope, and most recently the electric light and the 

 telephone. 



To science, again, we owe the idea of progress. The ancients, 

 says Bagehot, '■' had no conception of progress ; they did not so 

 much as reject the idea ; they did not even entertain it." It is 

 not, I think, now going too far to say that the true test of the 

 civilisation of a nation must be measured by its progress in 

 science. It is often said, however, that great and unexpected 

 as the recent discoveries have been, there are certain ultimate 

 problems which must ever remain unsolved. For my part I 

 would prefer to abstain from laying d nvn any such limitations. 

 When Park asked the Arabs what became of the sun at night, and 

 whether the sun was always the same, or new each day, they replied 

 that such a ([uestion was childish, and entirely beyonrl the reach of 

 human investigation. I have already mentioned that, even as lately 

 as 1842, so high an authority as Comte treati d as obviously impos- 

 sible and hopeless any attempt to determine the chemical composi- 

 tion of the heavenly b idles. Doubtless there are questions, the 

 solution of wlrich we do not as yet see our way even to attempt ; 

 nevertheless the experience of the past warns us not to limit the 

 possibilities of the future. 



But however this may be, though the progress made has been 

 so rapid, and though no similar peri id in the world's history has 

 been nearly so prolific of great results, yet, on the other hand, 

 the prospects of the future were never more encouraging. We 

 must not, indeed, shut our eyes to the possibility of failure ; the 

 temptation to military ambition ; the tendency to over-inter- 

 ference by the State ; the spirit of anarchy ard socialism ; these 

 and other elements of danger may mar the fair prospects of the 

 future. That ihey will succeed, however, in doing so, I cannot 

 believe. I cannot but feel confident hope that fifty years hence, 

 when perhaps the city of York may renew its hospitable 

 invitation, my successor in this chair — more competent, I trust, 

 than I have been to do justice to so grand a theme — will 

 have to record a series of discoveries even more unexpected and 

 more brilliant than those which I have, I fear so imperfectly, 

 attempted to bring before you this evening. For one great 

 lesson which science teacher is, how little we yet know, and 

 how much we have still to learn. 



SECTION B 



CHEMICAL SCIENCE 



Opening Address by Prof. A. W. Williamson, Ph.D., 



LL.D., F.R.S., V.P.C.S., President of the Section 

 On the Groiuth of the Atomic Theory 



It has teen thought desirable that on the occasion of this half- 

 centenary celeliratioir of the founlati^n of this great Association, 

 some notice should be presented to the members of what has 

 been doing in the respective branches of science during the period 

 of our acHvity ; and I have, accordingly, traced out for your 

 consideration a very imperfect sketch of the theories which gnided 

 chemical inquiry at the beginning of that period, and of the lead- 

 ing changes which have been wrought in them by fifty years' 

 work. 



There is perhaps hardly any branch of science which during 

 the last fifty years has made such great and ste.idy progress as 

 chemistry. Let any one compare I'ecent dictionaries of the 

 science (including the bulky supplements, which contain a record 

 of the chief discoveries made while the body of the work was 

 being compiled) with a treatise of chemistry fifty years old. 

 Let him co-npare a published record of one year's progress of 

 the science fifty years ago with one of modern date. Let him 

 compare, as far as may be possible, the number of men who 

 formerly devoted their whole time and energy to the advance- 

 ment of chemistry, or who were engaged in industrial pursuits 

 involving a knowledge of the science, with the corresporrding 

 number "nowadays. Let him count up the services which 

 chemistry had render-ed to common life at the commencement of 

 the epoch with those which it has now to show. 



Everywhere he will see marvellous evidences of increasing 

 growth. But if he be a reflecting man, he wdll not be satisfied 

 with wondering at results : he will endeavour to trace them to 



