NA TURE 



\ September 2, 1922 



and so becomes linked up with the Boy Scout camps 

 with their travelling museums. 



Well, win is it that the Americans have got so far 

 ahead of us on these lines ? They have no doubt a 

 new field to cultivate, and they do not have to contend 

 against the terrible weight of inertia inevitable to 

 some of our royal and ancient establishments. But to 

 a large extent it is because Americans are not ashamed 

 ol bu\ ing .111 ideal and of talking about it. They do 

 not mind saying what they are going to do, and they 

 make the utmost of everything that they have done. 

 This is not the Englishman's way, but it is a way that 

 interests the public both rich and poor. It brings 

 money from the former and enthusiasm from the latter. 

 1 1 we want to achieve the same results we must not be 

 above following somewhat similar methods. Here, 

 during the summer holidays, are the children crowding 

 our museums at South Kensington day after day. 

 Cannot something more be done for them, even it we 

 shed a little dignity in the process ? 



Ninety Years of British Science. 



The British Association for the Advancement of Science : 

 A Retrospect, 1831-1921. By 0. J. R. Howarth. 

 Pp. vii + 318. (London: British Association, Bur- 

 lington House, 1922.) 75. 6d. 



MR. HOWARTH is to be congratulated on the 

 manner in which he has used his opportunity, 

 while the record he has produced is a most ample 

 justification of the title of the Association — the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science — British 

 in that its meetings have been held in nearly every 

 part of the Empire, India excepted ; and perhaps, as 

 the part India can play in advancing science is more 

 fully recognised, we may in the years to come have a 

 meeting at Delhi, the centre of a civilisation dating back 

 centuries before the Association. 



The work is due to a suggestion made by Sir Charles 

 Parsons when president in 1919-20, and owes much 

 to his generous support, while the author has been 

 helped in his task by many friends whose assistance 

 is gratefully acknowledged in the preface. Com- 

 mencing with the history of the foundation of the 

 Association in 1831, the work deals with its relation 

 to the advancement of science, its organisation and 

 meetings, its aid to research, its connexion with the 

 State, and its work overseas. The author states that 

 his aim has been " to provide a summary review of its 

 activities, with examples," and this he has done with 

 conspicuous sui 1 ess. 



Founded in 1831, the Association's life of ninety 

 years has been full of stirring events. Sir David 

 Brewster was its founder ; in the Edinburgh Journal of 

 NO. 2757, VOL. I io] 



Science (vol. 5, 1831) he wrote : " Some months ago 

 it occurred to the editor of this work [himself] that the 

 general interests of science might be greatly promoted 

 by the establishment of a Society of British Cultivators 

 of Science w-hich should meet annually in some central 

 town in England." In writing this Brewster had in 

 mind the work of the Deutscher N aturforscher Ver- 

 sammlung, about which an article had appeared in 

 the preceding volume of the journal. The objects 

 of the meeting of this society were, as the author of 

 this article stated, to promote " acquaintance and 

 friendly personal intercourse among men of science ; 

 but other great and more important benefits grow out 

 of them." " Might not," he continued, " similar 

 results in our older country be looked for from a 

 similar institution." This statement sums up the work 

 of the Association. Similar results have followed, but 

 to an extent undreamt of by Brewster and his col- 

 leagues. The first meeting was held at York. Dalton 

 was there — "old Dalton, atomic Dalton, reading," as 

 Murchison wrote later, " his own memoir, and replying 

 with straightforward pertinacity to every objection 

 in the highly instructive conversations which followed 

 each paper." 



Ninety years later the atom has been resolved into 

 its constituent electrons, and Thomson, Rutherford, 

 and Bohr have stated in no uncertain terms the laws 

 which govern the planetary system of the atom, 

 atom no longer when subject to the bombardment of 

 the swift -moving electrons of the cathode rays. 



The second meeting of the Association was held at 

 Oxford, and the third at Cambridge. Sedgwick was 

 president, and Mr. Howarth has printed an interesting 

 selection of autographs of members present — Brewster 

 Airy, Babbage, Faraday, Forbes, Herschel, Buckland, 

 Harcourt, Murchison, Phillips, Peacock, Rigaud, 

 Sedgwick, Whewell, Houston, etc., all great names ; 

 the physical sciences predominate. Biology was not, 

 or rather it was represented by a little natural history, 

 with some botany and geology. Of the Oxford meeting 

 Murchison, afterwards general secretary and (1846) 

 president, wrote that " under the presidency of Buck- 

 land, the body was licked into shape and divided into 

 six sections." 



Started thus under brilliant auspices, the Association 

 has been a potent factor in the advancement of science ; 

 in its earlier years, it is true, it met with criticism and 

 ridicule in some quarters — Dickens's " Mudfog Papers " 

 may be mentioned ; these it has outlived, and the 

 striking success of the Edinburgh Meeting of 1921 

 showed that even in the altered conditions of the 

 twentieth century there is still ample work for it to 

 undertake. 



Turning now to a brief reference to its numerous 



