August 31, 1911] 



NATURE 



induce our population to adopt the more efficient and 

 economical systems of domestic heating which are used in 

 America and on the Continent. The increasing use of gas 

 for factory, metallurgical, and chemical purposes points to 

 the gradual concentration of works near the coal mines in 

 order that the laying-down of expensive piping may be 

 avoided. 



An invention which would enable us to convert the energy 

 of coal directly into electrical energy would revolutionise 

 our ideas and methods, yet it is not unthinkable. The 

 nearest practical approach to this is the Mond gas-battery, 

 which, however, has not succeeded, owing to the imperfec- 

 tion of the machine. 



In conclusion, I would put in a plea for the study of 

 pure science, without regard to its applications. The dis- 

 covery of radium and similar radio-active substances has 

 widened the bounds of thought. While themselves, in all 

 probability, incapable of industrial application, save in the 

 domain of medicine, their study has shown us to what 

 enormous advances in the concentration of energy it is 

 permissible to look forward, with the hope of applying the 

 knowledge thereby gained to the betterment of the whole 

 human race. As charity begins at home, however, and as 

 I am speaking to the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, I would urge that our first duty is to 

 strive for all which makes for the permanence of the 

 British Commonweal, and which will enable us to transmit 

 to our posterity a heritage not unworthy to be added to 

 that which we have received from those who have gone 

 before. 



SECTION A. 



MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 



Opening Address by Prof. H. H. Turner, D.Sc, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., President of the Section. 



The Characteristics oj the Observational Sciences. 



It will doubtless startle my audience to hear that this 

 Section has only once in its history been addressed by an 

 astronomical President upon an astronomical topic. 1 

 hasten to admit that I am not using the term astronomical 

 in its widest sense. Huxley once declared that there were 

 only two sciences, Astronomy and Biology, and it is re- 

 corded that " the company " (which happened to be that 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society Club) " agreed with 

 him." One may agree with the company in assenting to 

 the proposition in the sense in which it is obviously in- 

 tended without losing the right to use the name astronomy 

 in a more restricted sense when necessary ; and at present 

 I use it in its classical sense. At Brighton, in 1872, Dr. 

 De La Rue addressed Section A on Astronomical Photo- 

 graphy in words which are still worthy of attention, though 

 they are all but forty years old ; and this is the only 

 instance I can find in the annals of the Section. There 

 have, of course, been occasional astronomical Presidents 

 such as Airy, Lord Rosse, and Dr. Robinson, but these 

 presided in early days before the Address existed, or when 

 it was brief and formal ; and the only allusions to astro- 

 nomical matters were the statements, by Robinson and 

 Airy, of what the Association had done in subsidising the 

 reduction of Lalande's observations and the Greenwich 

 lunar observations. In 1887 Sir Robert Ball occupied this 

 chair, but he selected from his ample scientific wardrobe 

 the costume of a geometer, and left his astronomical dress 

 at home. A great man whose death was announced almost 

 as I was writing these words, Dr. Johnstone Stoney, spoke 

 (in 1S79 at Sheffield) of the valuable training afforded by 

 the study of mechanics and of chemistry, with that keen 

 insight which made him so valuable a member of our 

 Section. Other Presidents whom we have been glad to 

 welcome as astronomers at certain times and seasons did 

 not choose the occasion of their presidency for any very 

 definite manifestation of astronomical sympathy. 



The Addresses of Sir George Darwin (in 1886) and of 

 Prof. Love (in 1907) on the past history of our earth 

 certainly have an astronomical bearing, but if we dis- 

 tinguish between the classical astronomy and its modern 

 expansions they would be assigned to the latter rather than 

 to the former ; and so do the few astronomical allusions 

 in Prof. Schuster's Address at Edinburgh in 1892. Even 



NO. 2183, VOL. 8/] 



if we include, instead of excluding, all doubtful cases, 

 there will still appear a curious neglect of astronomy by 

 Section A in the last half-century, all the more curious 

 when it is remarked that the neglect does not extend to 

 the Association itself, seeing that there have been three 

 Astronomical Presidents of the Association who had not 

 been previously chosen to fill this chair. The neglect is 

 not confined to astronomy, but extends, as some of us 

 recently pointed out, to the other sciences of observation ; 

 and we thought that, as a corollary, it would be better 

 for the Section to divide, in order that these sciences might 

 not continue the struggle for existence in an atmosphere 

 to which they were apparently ill-suited. But the Section 

 decided against the suggestion, and I have no intention 

 of appealing against the decision. This explicit statement 

 will, I trust, suffice to prevent misunderstanding if I 

 proceed to examine the possible causes of neglect — for I 

 cannot but regard the record as significant of some cause 

 which it will be well to recognise even if we cannot remove 

 it. Personally I think the cause is not far to seek, and 

 my hope is to make it manifest ; but as the statement of it 

 involves something in the nature of an accusation, I will 

 beg leave to make it as gently as possible by using the 

 words of others, especially of those against whom the mild 

 accusation is to be made. 



Let me begin by quoting from the admirable Address — 

 none the less admirable because it was only one-quarter 

 of the length to which we have become accustomed — 

 delivered by my late Oxford colleague, the Rev. Bartholo- 

 mew Price, at Oxford in i860, wherein he referred to the 

 constitution of this Section as follows : — 



" The area of scientific research which this Section 

 covers is very large, larger perhaps than that of any 

 other ; and its subjects vary so much that while to some 

 of those who frequent this room certain papers may appear 

 dull, yet to others they will be full of interest. Some of 

 them possess, probably in the highest degree attainable 

 by the human intellect, the characteristics of perfect and 

 necessary science ; while others are at present little more 

 than a conglomeration of observations, made indeed with 

 infinite skill and perseverance, and of the greatest value : 

 capable probably in time of greater perfection, nay, 

 perhaps of the most perfect forms, but as yet in their 

 infancy, scarcely indicating the process by which that 

 maturity will be arrived at and containing hardly the 

 barest outline of their ultimate laws." 



A little later in the Address Prof. Price made it quite 

 clear which were the sciences " in their infancy." 



" And finally we come to the facts of meteorology and 

 its kindred subjects, many of which are scarcely yet 

 brought within any law at all." 



There is here much that will command ready and 

 universal assent ; but is there not also a rather unnecessary 

 social scale? The science of planetary movement had not 

 yet been " brought within any law at all " (as we now 

 use the term) in Tycho Brahe"s time ; but was the astro- 

 nomy of Tycho Brahe socially inferior to that of Kepler? 

 It is difficult to fix the eye on such a question without its 

 being caught by the splendour of Newton towering so 

 near ; and the idea of a scale descending from that great 

 height is almost irresistibly suggested. But in spite of 

 this grave difficulty, I ask whether there is of necessity 

 any drop whatever from the plane of Kepler, who realised 

 the laws, to that of Tycho, who never reached any 

 suspicion of the true laws, but had nevertheless such faith 

 in their existence that he cheerfully devoted his life to 

 labours of which he never reaped the fruits? Is it not 

 a dangerous doctrine that the work done previous to the 

 formulation of a law is in any way inferior? Take the 

 case of a man like Stephen Groombridge, who made 

 thousands of accurate observations of stars in the early 

 part of last century. Fifty years later something of the 

 value of his work began to emerge from a comparison 

 with later observations which showed what stars had 

 moved and how ; but it was not until nearly a century 

 had elapsed that something about the laws of stellar move- 

 ment was extracted from his patient work, combined with 

 a repetition of similar works at Greenwich. Then, with 

 the skilful assistance of Mr. Dyson and Mr. Eddington, 

 Groombridge at last came into the fruits of his labours ; 

 but had he been asked during his lifetime for credentials 



