4i6 



NA TURE 



[September 3, 1908 



tation of his great discovery honours fell thickly upon 

 him. He was president of the Society Fran^aisc de 

 Physique in 1897. In igoo the Royal Society awarded 

 him the Rumford medal. In iqo3 the Nobel prize 

 in physics was awarded to him conjointly with 

 the Curies. In 1907 the National Academy 

 of the United States decreed to him the Burnard 

 medal. In 1907 he was president of the Soci^t^ 

 nationale d'Agriculture, and the Berlin Academy 

 awarded him the Helmholtz medal. In the same year 

 he was elected vice-president of the French Academy 

 of Sciences, and only in June last he was elected per- 

 petual secretary of the Academy in succession to 

 M. Lapparent. He was a member of many foreign 

 academies, and received honorary doctorates from the 

 Universities of Cambridge, O.xford, Aberdeen, Man- 

 chester, and Gottingen. He was a foreign fellow of 

 the Physical Society of London, and an honorary 

 member of the Royal Institution, where, in March, 1902, 

 he lectured on radio-activity. In Nature of December 

 22, 1905 vol. Ixxi., p. 177), in an article of the series 

 Some Scientific Centres, by Mr. J. B. Burke, an 

 account is given of the laboratory of the Mus^e d'His- 

 toire naturelle, illustrated by a portrait of Becquerel 

 amongst the apparatus used in his researches. 

 Amiable and ever courteous, he was greatly endeared 

 to all who knew him by his frank and sympathetic 

 demeanour. He leaves one son, M. Jean Becquerel, 

 Ingcnieur des Ponts et Chaussi^es, who has already 

 distinguished himself by important investigations on 

 the absorption of light in crystals and other re- 

 searches, the latest of which promises to elucidate 

 the nature of positive electricity. He has honourably 

 carried on the family tradition even in having been 

 appointed assistant in the Mus^e d'Histoire naturelle. 



THE DUBLIN MEETING OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



"T^HE seventy-eighth annual meeting of the British 

 -*- Association for the Advancement of Science 

 began yesterday, September 2, when Mr. Francis 

 Darwin, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., assumed the presidency 

 and delivered his presidential address in the great hall 

 of the Royal University of Ireland, Earlsfort Terrace, 

 Dublin. iSIore than 2000 members and associates are 

 attending the meeting. In the afternoon of the same 

 day the members met informally at the Dublin 

 Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor, Alderman 

 Gerald O'Reilly, bade them welcome in the name of 

 the city. 



The sectional meetings began this morning. The)' 

 are mostly being held in the various schools of 

 Trinity College, the sole college of Dublin Univer- 

 sity, which was founded some 300 years ago by Queen 

 Elizabeth. The Educational Science Section meets 

 in the Royal University building, which is shortly to 

 be re-modelled for the accommodation of the new and 

 as yet unnamed university founded by Mr. Birrell's 

 recent Act. Other sections meet in the Royal Irish 

 .\cademy, the Royal College of Science for Ireland 

 (soon to be provided with new and handsome build- 

 ings), the historic Leinstcr House of the Royal 

 Dublin Society, and the Royal Colleges of Physicians 

 and Surgeons. A service of trams and a volunteer 

 service of motor-cars have been arranged to facilitate 

 the circulation of members among the various sec- 

 tions. The official journal, published every morning 

 at 10, gives a list of papers to be read, and an inter- 

 sectional telephone service announces the progress 

 made with the reading of the various papers. 



The examination hall in Trinity College has been 



NO. 2027, VOL. 78] 



fitted up as a reception-room, with the usual facilities 

 as to postal and telegraphic business. Letters should 

 be addressed to "British Association, Dublin." The 

 names of persons for whom telegrams have been re- 

 ceived are written on a blackboard at the post office. 

 There is a liberal provision of writing, smoking, and 

 lounge rooms, and drawing-rooms for ladies. There 

 is an official luncheon-room in the dining hall of 

 Trinity College, and luncheons and teas are obtain- 

 able in a marquee in the College Park. 



The Royal Dublin Society and the Dublin Chamber 

 of Commerce are offering the use of their rooms to 

 members of the Association, and many of the clubs 

 are giving facilities for temporary membership. 



The " Handbook " to the city of Dublin and the 

 surrounding district, prepared for the meeting and 

 printed at the Dublin University Press, is an attrac- 

 tive work the production of which is creditable to the 

 general editors, Prof. Grenville Cole and Mr. Lloyd 

 Praeger. It contains 440 pages, numerous illustrations, 

 and an excellent district map. Its contents deal with 

 the geology, meteorology, botany, and zoology (the 

 latter very fully) of the Dublin district. The history 

 and archaology of Dublin are treated by a subcom- 

 mittee of experts. A melancholy interest attaches to 

 the sketch of the history of Dublin, by Mr. C. 

 Litton Falkiner, late secretary to the council of the 

 Royal Irish Academy, who lost his life mountain- 

 climbing in Switzerland last month. A special 

 chapter, edited by Prof. G. H. Carpenter, deals with 

 the various scientific and other educational institu- 

 tions of Dublin, and Prof. Adeney's work on Dublin 

 industries and commerce concludes the volume, which 

 will do much to bring the more exceptional features 

 of the Irish capital before the scientific public in an 

 informing and attractive manner. 



E. E. FOIRNIER. 



Inaugural ."Address ev Francis Darwin, M.A., Ph.D., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Association. 

 Before entering on the subject of my Address, I may be 

 allowed to refer to the loss which the British Association 

 has sustained in the death of Lord Kelvin. He joined the 

 Association in 1847, and had been for more than fifty years 

 a familiar figure at our meetings. This is not the occasion 

 to speak of his work in the world or of what lie was to 

 his friends, but rather of his influence on those who were 

 personally unknown to him. It seems to me characteristic 

 of him that something of his vigour and of his personal 

 charm was felt far beyond the circle of his intimate 

 associates, and many men and women who never exchanged 

 a word with Lord Kelvin, and are in outer darkness as 

 to his researches, will miss his genial presence and feel 

 themselves the poorer to-day. By the death of Sir John 

 Evans the Association is deprived of another faithful friend. 

 He presided at Toronto in 1897, and since he joined the 

 Association in 1861 had been a regular attendant at our 

 meetings. The absence of his cheerful personality and the 

 loss of his wise counsels will be widely felt. 



May I be permitted one other digression before I come 

 to my subject? There has not been a Botanical President 

 of the British Association since the Norwich meeting forty 

 years ago, when Sir Joseph Hooker was in the chair, and 

 in " eloquent and felicitous words " (to quote my father's 

 letter) spol^e in defence of the doctrine of evolution. I am 

 sure that every member of this Association will be glad 

 to be reminded that Sir Joseph Hooker is, happily, still 

 working at the subject that his lifelong labours have so 

 greatly advanced, and of which he has long been recognised 

 as the honoured chief and leader. 



You will perhaps expect me to give a retrospect of the 

 progress of evolution during the fifty years that have 

 elapsed since July i, 1S58, when the doctrine of the origin 

 of species by means of natural selection was made known 

 to the world in the words of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace. 



