889 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 
Section A—MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION—Professor G. CHRYSTAL, M.A.,, F.R.S.E, 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10. 
The PRESIDENT delivered the following Address :— 
Wuen a man finds himself unexpectedly in some unusual situation his first 
impulse is to look round and see how others have done in like circumstances. I 
have accordingly run through the addresses of my predecessors in the honourable 
office of president of Section A, which is fated this year to be filled somewhat 
unworthily. This examination has, I am bound to say, comforted me not a little. 
I have found precedents for all kinds of addresses, long and short, even apparently 
for none at all. The variety of subjects is also suggestive of great latitude. I 
have found reviews of the progress of mathematical and physical science, discussions 
of special scientific subjects, dissertations on the promotion of scientific research, 
and on the teaching and diffusion of science, all chosen in their turn for the subjects 
of this opening address. 
Following some of the most eminent of my forerunners, I propose to be brief; 
following the last of them, Professor Henrici, I shall take for my subject, so far as 
I have one, the Diffusion of Scientific Knowledge. Apart from the fact that 
Professor Henrici’s address greatly interested me, and that I find many of his 
conclusions in agreement with the results of my own experience, and that, there- 
fore, I wish to second him with all my power, I have other reasons for this choice. 
For more than half the year I am employed with absolute continuity in teaching 
mathematics, and it has happened for the last eight years or so that the other half 
has been mainly occupied in a variety of ways with science-teaching generally. 
This isthething concerning which I have had most experience, and T hold it to be the 
most respectful course towards my audience to speak to them on the subject that I 
know best. 
Ever since I began to study science I have been deeply interested in the question 
of how it could best be taught. I believe my meditations in that direction were 
awakened by some unsuccessful boyish efforts to apply to the satisfaction of a 
ploughman, who was my friend and confidant, certain principles of natural 
philosophy to explain the action of his plough. Wisely and unwisely I have 
always been ardent about the improvement of scientific teaching. I was so long 
before I dreamt that I should one day be called upon to put my ideas through the 
cold ordeal of practice. It would not be becoming that I should speak at any time, 
more particularly to-day, regarding the success of my own efforts, or even regard- 
ing my alternate fits of hopefulness and despair. It is enough to say that, in such 
a cause, 
“Tis better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all.’ 
