390 



NA TURE 



[Atigust 24, 1882 



{Diadema) bore their long barbed stings into the flesh of 

 the foot, where they break off and remain, inflicting pain- 

 ful and dangerous wounds. But the worst of all injuries 

 to the skin are inflicted by the coral rocks themselves. 

 The myriads of hard points and edges with which they 

 are armed inflict numberless wounds on the hands which 

 attempt to uproot them." 



" I never in my life had such a lacerated and smarting 

 skin as after a few days diving and coral fishing at the 

 Point de Galle. The wounds did not heal for several 

 weeks. But what were such temporary sufferings as these 

 in comparison with the wealth of new impressions and 

 delights with which this visit to the wonderful coral-banks 

 of Ceylon enriched my whole future life !" 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIA HON 

 HPHE fifty-second annual meeting of the British Asso- 

 ■*■ ciation was opened yesterday at Southampton, 

 when Sir John Lubbock resigned the presidency to Dr. 

 C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., the president-elect. We have 

 already given such full details concerning the arrange- 

 ments, that at this stage little more remains to be said. 

 All the provisions made by the local committee appear 

 to be quite satisfactory, and although we cannot expect 

 the attendance to be so large as at the Jubilee last year, 

 still some eminent foreign men of science are expected — 

 Helmholtz, Clausius, Du Bois Reymond, J. P. Cook, 

 Langley, Von Rath, Baumhauer, and others. 



Inaugural Address by C. William Siemens, D.C.L. 

 (Oxon), LL.D. (Glasg. and Dupl.), Ph.D., F.R.S., 

 F.C.S., Member Inst. C.E., President 



In venturing; to addre-s the British Association from this 

 chair, I feel that I have taken upon myself a task involving very 

 serious responsibility. The Association has for half a century 

 fulfilled the important mission of drawing together, once every 

 year, scientists from all parts of the country for the purpose of 

 discussing questions of mutual interest, and of cultivating those 

 personal relations which aid so powerfully in harmonising views, 

 and in stimulating concerted action for the advancement of 

 science. 



A sad event casts a shadow over our gathering. While still 

 mourning the irreparable loss Science had sustained in the 

 person of Charles Darwin, whose bold conceptions, patient 

 labour, and genial mind made him almost a type of unsurpassed 

 excellence, telegraphic news reached Cambridge just a month 

 ago, to the effect that our Honorary Secretary, Professor F. M. 

 Balfour, had lost his life during an attempted ascent of the 

 Aiguille Blanche de Penteret. Although only thirty years of 

 age, few men have won distinction so rapidly and so deservedly. 

 After attending the lectures of Micnael Foster, he completed his 

 studies of Biology under Dr, Anton Dohrn at the Zoological 

 Station of Naples in 1875. In 187s he was elected a Fellow, and 

 ill November last a member of the Council of th : Royal Society, 

 when he was also awarded one of the Royal Medals for his em- 

 bryological researches. Within a short interval of time Glasgow 

 University conferred on him their honorary degree of LL.D., he- 

 was elected President of the Cambridge PhilosDphical Society, 

 and after having declined very tempting offers fron the Univer- 

 sities of Oxford and Edinburgh he accepted a professorship of 

 Animal Morphology created for him by his own University. Few 

 men could have borne without hurt such a stream of honourable 

 distinctions, but in young Balfour genius and independence of 

 thought were happily blended with industry and personal 

 modesty ; these won for him the friendship, e^eem, and ad- 

 miration of all who knew him. 



Since the days of the first meeting of the Association in York 

 in 1831, great changes have taken place in the means at our dis- 

 posal for exchanging views, either personally or through the 

 medium of type. The creation of the railway system has 

 enabled congenial minds to attend frequent meetings of th''se 

 special Societies, which have sprung into existence since the 

 foundation of the Briti-.h Association, amongst which I need 

 only name here the Physical, Geographical, Meteorological, An- 

 thropological, and Linnean, cultivating abstract science, and the 

 Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Naval 



Architects, the Iron and Steel Institute, the Society of Telegraph 

 Engineers and Electricians, the Gas Institute, the Sanitary Insti- 

 tute, and the Society of Chemical Industry, representing ap- 

 plied science. These meet at frequent intervals in London, 

 whilst others, having similar objects in view, hold their meetings 

 at the University towns, and at other centres of intelligence and 

 industry throughout the country, giving evidence of great mental 

 activity, and producing some of those very results which the 

 founders of the British Association wished to see realised. If 

 we consider further the extraordinary development of scientific 

 journalism which has taken place, it cannot surprise us when we 

 meet with expressions of opinion to the effect that the British 

 As-ociation has fulfilled its mission, and sh mid now yield its 

 place to those special Societies it has served to call into exist- 

 ence. On the other hand, it may be urged that the brilliant 

 success of list year's Anniversary Meeting, enhanced by the com- 

 prehensive address delivered on that occasion by my distin- 

 guished predecessor in office, Sir John Lubbock, has proved, at 

 least, that the British Association is not dead in the affection of 

 its members, and it behoves us at this, the first ordinary gather- 

 ing in the second half century, to consider what are the strong 

 points to rely upon for the continuance of a career of success and 

 usefulness. 



If the facilities brought home to our doors of acquiring scien- 

 tific information have increased, the necessities for scientific 

 inquiry have increased in a greater ratio. The time was when 

 s.ience was cultivated only by the few, who looked upon its appli- 

 cation to the arts and manufactures as almost beneath their con- 

 sideration ; this they were content to leave in the hands of 

 others, who, with only commercial aims in view, did not aspire 

 to further the objects of science for its own sake, but thought 

 only of benefiting by its teachings. Progres- could not be rapid 

 under this condition of things, because the man of pure science 

 rarely pursued his inquiry beyond the mere enunciation of a 

 physical or chemical principle, whilst the simpler practitioner 

 was at a loss how to harmonise the new knowledge with the 

 stock of information which formed his mental capital in trade. 



The advancement of the last fifty years has, I venture to sub- 

 mit, rendered theory and practice so interdependent, that an 

 intimate union between them is a matter of absolute necessity 

 f:>r our future progress. Take, for instance, the art of dyeing, 

 and we find that the discovery of new colouring matters derived 

 from waste products, such as coal-tar, completely changes its 

 practice, and renders an intimate knowledge of the science of 

 chemistry a matter of absolute necessity to the practitioner. In 

 telegraphy and in the new arts of applying electricity to light- 

 ing, to the transmission of power, and to metallurgical opera- 

 tions, problems arise at every turn, requiring for their solution 

 not only an intimate acquaintance with, but a positive advance 

 upon electrical science, as established by purely theoretical 

 research in the laboratory. In general engineering the mere 

 practical art of constructing a machine so designed and propor- 

 tioned as to produce mechanically the desired effect, would suffice 

 no longer. Oar increased knowledge of the nature of the mutual 

 relations between the different forms of energy makes us see 

 clearly what are the theoretical limits of effect ; these, although 

 beyond our absolute reach, may be looked upon as the asym- 

 ptotes to be approached indefinitely by the hyperbolic course of 

 practical progress, of which we should never lose sight. Cases 

 arise, moreover, where the introduction of new materials of con- 

 struction, or the call for new effects, renders former rules wholly 

 insufficient. In all these cases practical knowledge has to 

 go hand in hand with advanced science in order to accomplish 

 the desired end. 



Far be it from me to think lightly of the ardent students of 

 nature who, in their devotion to research, do not allow their 

 minds to travel into the regions of utilitarianism and of self- 

 interest. These, the high priests of science, command our utmost 

 admiration ; but it is not to them that we can look for our current 

 progress in practical science, much less can we look for it to the 

 " rule of thu nb " practitioner, who is guided by what comes 

 nearer to instinct than to reason. It is to the man of science, 

 who also gives attention to practical que-tions, and to the practi- 

 tioner, who devotes part of his time to the prosecution of strictly 

 scientific investigations, that we owe the rapid progress of the 

 present day, both merging more and more into one class, that of 

 pioneers in the domain of nature. It is such men that Archi- 

 medes must have desired when he refused to teach his disciples 

 the art of constructing his powerful ballistic engines, exhorting 

 them to give their attention to the principles involved in their 



