~ SEPTEMBER 25, 1902] 
NEAL O Lele 
521 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT BELFAST. 
pe Belfast meeting of the British Association was 
concluded as we went to press last week. The 
weather during the meeting was not all that might have 
been desired, but both the local committee and the 
visitors have reason to be thankful that the deluge which 
flooded Belfast a few days before the opening meeting 
did not occur a few days later. 
The flags of the presidents were in imminent danger 
of destruction on account of this flood. They had been 
placed on a table in the Grosvenor Hall ready to be hung 
up for the opening address, and were saved only by the 
timely action of the Rev. Mr. Kerr, who divesting himself | 
of some of his clothing, waded in to their rescue. The 
water afterwards rose to a height of several feet in the 
Hall, an occurrence never before experienced there. 
With the exception of the garden party given by the | 
local executive committee in the Botanic Gardens Park, 
when the rain came punctually at the hour named on the 
cards and departed with the guests, all the other out- 
door functions went off with nothing more than a sprinkle 
or two. 
The garden parties of the Earl and Countess of 
Shaftesbury and of Lord and Lady O’Neill at their 
picturesque residences were favoured with dry but cool 
afternoons, as was also that of Mr. and Mrs. J. Brown. 
This last included a visit to the linen factory of Mr. G. 
Herbert Brown, and an inspection of Mr. Brown’s physical 
laboratory and of various applications of electric power | 
to domestic appliances, among which an electrically 
driven lawn mower and the ice-making, knife-cleaning 
and meat-chopping machines in the kitchen offices 
seemed to attract most attention. The excursions 
arranged for Saturday were well attended, as also were 
those planned by the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club for 
the Thursday after the meeting. 
General and warm approval has been expressed re- 
garding the arrangements made by the local officials for 
the reception and comfort of the members, and although 
these were smaller in number than on the last occasion, 
this was not due to any falling off in those visiting 
Belfast, but rather to the apathy of local people, judging 
by the smaller number of associates’ and ladies’ tickets 
issued, as shown by the following table :— 
1874. 1902. 
Old Life Members 162 243 
New * ait 13 21 
Old Annual Members ... 232 314 
New +e 85 84 
Associates 817 647 
Ladies Ae 630... 305 
Foreign Members 12 6 
1951 - 1620 
It has been questioned whether this falling off, espe- 
cially in the number of ladies’ tickets, may not be ascribed 
in a considerable degree to the educational methods of 
Ireland and their effect on the tastes of those brought up 
ander their influence within the last thirty years. 
The educational note struck in the admirable Presi- 
dential Address of Prof. Dewar seemed to ring through 
the entire proceedings, and not only in the new Section 
devoted to the subject, but in joint discussions, and 
notably in the excellent address of Prof. Perry in Section | 
G, do we find this question prominent. New opinions 
seem to be growing, and among these are the ideas that 
the English public-school system must be relegated to the | 
limbo of inefficiency and that the technical school of the 
kind made in Germany is all very well over there, but 
almost useless here. 
From a scientific point of view, the meeting was with- 
out doubt an admirable one. Many important papers 
were brought before the sections. 
NO. 1717, VOL. 66] 
At the concluding meeting of the Association, the 
following votes of thanks were unanimously adopted :— 
(1) Tothe Lord Mayor and Corporation for their recep- 
tion of the Association ; to the President and Council of 
the Queen’s College, the Presbyterian College, the 
Methodist College and the Elmwood Presbyterian 
Church for the use of rooms ; and to the Harbour Com- 
missioners for their reception. (2) To the local secre- 
taries—Mr. John Brown, Mr. Ferguson and Prof. Fitz- 
gerald—Dr. Kyle Knox (the local treasurer) and the 
local committee for the excellent arrangements made for 
the reception of the Association in Belfast. (3) To the 
noblemen, gentlemen and public bodies who have enter- 
tained the Association ; to the firms who have opened 
their works ; to the citizens who have hospitably enter- 
| tained members ; to the gentlemen who have contributed 
to the success of the excursions ; to the committees of 
clubs, libraries and other institutions who have opened 
their premises to the members of the Association ; to 
the Belfast Tramway Company; and to the Belfast 
Press, for their admirable reports of the proceedings. 
A noteworthy event of the meeting was the speech given 
by Prof. C. S. Minot, President of the American Associa- 
tion, in which he invited members of the British Associa- 
tion to attend the meeting to be held early next January 
at Washington. Prof. Minot said he had been directed 
by the council of his Association to express the hope that 
as many members as possible of the British Association 
would attend the Washington meeting. A vote had been 
| passed to the effect that all members of the British 
Association would be received upon presenting themselves 
| at the meetings in America as members of the American 
Association without further requirement. In future, as 
has already been announced in these columns, the annual 
| meetings of the American Association will begin on the 
first Monday after Christmas and extend throughout the 
week. The scientific societies affiliated with the Associa- 
tion have agreed to this arrangement, and the universities 
have consented to the establishment of this “ Convocation 
Week,” in which the meetings of scientific societies are 
to be held. It is expected that the first meeting to be 
held next January under this rule will be the most 
important scientific gathering ever held in America. In 
the course of his remarks, Prof. Minot said :— 
It was the duty, he believed, which they should all perform 
to attend these gatherings and take part in international inter- 
course. Many Americans had come to the British Association, 
and they had always been treated with the greatest hospitality. 
They arrived strangers and went away friends; they brought 
expectations, and took back realisations and a grateful memory. 
He asked for one moment in which to remind them of a new 
historic condition never existing in the world before. It was 
the first time that two great nations existed with a common 
speech, a common past, a common history ; would they not 
therefore so work together that they might build up a common 
future? And for the scientific man this duty came first. Each 
nation was governed, not by the Government, but by the men of 
learning and above all by the universities. Nowhere, he 
believed, in the Anglo-Saxon world had science yet taken its 
place in the universities. Nowhere in the Anglo-Saxon world 
had the full value of scientific knowledge throughout the whole 
range of life, from the university down to every practical affair— 
| nowhere, he said, had the full power of the world of science been 
| established. 
| the other side of the Atlantic. 
Prof. Dewar, in replying on behalf of the Association, 
said :— 
They were all delighted to hear the kind invitation which 
had been extended to the members of the Association by their 
brother workers on the other side of the Atlantic. The great 
blunder we in the United Kingdom were perpetrating for many 
years past was in remaining ignorant of what was being done on 
He had again and again said to 
manufacturers and those interested in industrial progress that if 
they would subsidise their chief officials by a donation which would 
enable them to spend their short holiday by going to see what 
