462 
at low temperatures. Without them, the crowning 
achievement of obtaining hydrogen in the liquid state 
(May, 1898) would scarcely have been possible. Prof. 
Dewar is shown handling one of these vessels in the pic- 
ture on p. 461. 
The researches carried out under the transcendental 
conditions now available at the Royal Institution have 
led fo many surprises: notably is this true of the in- 
vestigations carried out by Profs. Dewar and Fleming 
on the electrical conductivity of metals, and on specific 
inductive capacity. The fact that almost all substances 
may be rendered phosphorescent by insolation when 
cooled to low temperatures is another discovery nade by 
Prof. Dewar which promises to be of special importance 
in the light of recent researches on radio-activity. 
But to understand Prof. Dewar fully, it is necessary to 
know him in the upper as well as in the lower regions of 
the Royal Institution ; not only the wealth of his powers 
of imagination and his scientific acumen then become 
apparent, but it is realised that he is a man of extra- 
ordinarily sympathetic nature, penetrated with artistic 
feeling and emotions. Unfortunately, he is also” gifted 
with a reticence rare among artists, which is particularly 
manifest when the time comes to commit his thoughts to 
paper ; the world has lost much in not being made fully, 
acquainted with his discoveries, and if his reflections 
were more frequently uttered outside his private circle, 
it would be to the advantage of scientific progress. We 
‘may hope that there is much time left to him in which 
to repair minor faults such as these. 
A laboratory in which so many remarkable and im- 
portant discoveries have been made may certainly be 
said to have justified the hopes of its founder, and it is 
surprising that its successes have not won for it a larger 
measure of public support—that as yet it has had no 
imitators. 
But there is one respect in which Count Rumford 
might well deplore failure. However much the lectures 
delivered in the Institution may have interested and even 
amused the rich, they have failed to lead them to 
appreciate in any proper measure the value of scientific 
research to the nation, a subject on which Davy dwelt 
touch in his lectures ; for had they done so, an industry 
such as the coal-tar colour industry, so closely connected 
in its origin with the Institution, which was first estab- 
lished and for a time flourished in this country, would 
not have been allowed to pass almost entirely into other 
hands ; the attempt made by Davy to raise agriculture 
to a science would have been persevered in at the public 
cost ; electrochemistry would have been steadily de- 
veloped ; and pioneer work such as Faraday did on 
iron and glass would not have been allowed to stand 
in splendid isolation. A century of the highest example 
has had little effect in making the knowledge of scientific 
method a public possession. 
THE BELFAST MEETING OF THE BRITISH 
ASSOCIATION. 
iN previous issues of NATURE, particulars have been 
given as to the local arrangements which have been 
made for the comfort of those attending this meeting, 
and the titles of the papers which may be expected to be 
read in the various sections have been published ; not 
much remains, therefore, to bessaid by us on this occasion. 
It may, however, be stated that the illustrated handbook 
or guide issued by the Association and prepared under 
the auspices of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club 
appears to have been very carefully compiled. It deals 
with the subjects respectively of Belfast, geology, botany, 
zoology and antiquities, and is the work of many 
writers. So far as can be seen as we go to press, 
the meeting will be a successful one, it being 
estimated that in point of numbers attending it 
NO. 1715, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
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conditions of calm security and social stability. 
[SEPTEMBER 11, 1902 
will equal the gathering of 1874, at which the total 
attendance was 1951. Given fine weather, the meeting 
should be no less enjoyable and interesting than many 
of its predecessors. It had been hoped that the Sco/za, 
of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, would have been’ 
able to visit the harbour and be open for inspection by ~ 
the members of the Association ; this hope, however, 
seems likely to be disappointed. The address of the Pre- 
sident, Prof. Dewar, was delivered as we went to press 
yesterday, and the various sections began their proceed- 
ings this morning. In this issue we print the Presidential 
Address and that of the President of Section A. Other 
addresses and accounts of the papers and reports brought 
before the sections will duly appear in subsequent 
numbers. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY PRorF, JAMES Dewar, M.A, 
LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
THE members of an Association whose studies involve per- 
petual contemplation of settled law and ordered evolution, 
whose objects are to seek patiently for the truth of things and 
to extend the dominion of man over the forces of nature, are 
even more deeply pledged than other men to loyalty to the 
Crown and the Constitution which procure for them the essential 
I am confident 
that I express the sentiments of all now before me when I say 
that to our loyal respect for his high office we add a warmer 
feeling of loyalty and attachment to the person of our Gracious 
Sovereign. It is the peculiar felicity of the British Association 
that, since its foundation seventy-one years ago, it has always 
been easy and natural to cherish both these sentiments, which 
indeed can never be dissociated without peril. At this, our 
second meeting held under the present reign, these sentiments 
are realised all the more vividly, because, in common with the 
whole empire, we have recently passed through a period of 
acute’ apprehension, followed by the uplifting of a national 
deliverance. 
which took place just a month ago was rendered doubly impres- 
sive both for the King and his people by the universal con- 
sciousness that it was also a service of thanksgiving for 
escape from imminent peril. In offering to His Majesty our 
most hearty congratulations upon his singularly rapid recovery 
from a dangerous illness, we rejoice to think that the nation has 
received gratifying evidence of the vigour of his constitution; 
and may, with confidence more assured than before, pray that 
he may have length of happy and prosperous days. No one in 
his wide dominions is more competent than the King to realise 
how much he owes, not only to the skill of his surgeons, but 
also to the equipment which has been placed in their hands as 
the combined result of scientific investigation in many and 
diverse directions. He has already displayed a profound and 
sagacious interest in the discovery of methods for dealing with 
some of the most intractable maladies that still bafile scientific 
penetration ; nor can we doubt that this interest extends to other 
forms of scientific investigation, more directly connected with 
the amelioration of the lot of the healthy than with the relief of 
the sick. Heredity imposes obligations and also confers apti- 
tude for their discharge. If His Majesty’s royal mother 
throughout her long and beneficent reign set him a splendid 
example of devotion to the burdensome labours of State which 
must necessarily absorb the chief part of his energies, his father 
no less clearly indicated the great part he may play in the 
encouragement of science. Intelligent appreciation of scientific 
work and needs is not less but more necessary in the highest 
quarters to-day than it was forty-three years ago, when His 
Royal Highness the Prince Consort brought the matter before 
this Association in the following memorable passage in his 
Presidential Address: ‘‘We may be justified, however, in 
hoping that by the gradual diffusion of science and its increasing 
recognition as a principal part of our national education, the 
public in general, no less than the legislature and the State, 
will more and more recognise the claims of science to their 
attention ; so that it may no longer require the begging box, 
but speak to the State like a favoured child to its parent, sure 
of its paternal solicitude for its welfare; that the State will 
recognise in science one of its elements of strength and pros- 
perity, to protect which the clearest dictates of self-interest 
demand.” Had this advice been seriously taken to heart and 
acted upon by the rulers of the nation at the time, what splendid 
The splendid and imposing coronation ceremony a 
