lxvi REPORT — 1865. 



and Jenkin*; or try the action of long-continued heat with Harcourtf: 

 in these and a hundred other directions, our attempts to gain knowledge 

 have brought back new facts and new laws of phenomena, or better instru- 

 ments for attaining or better methods for interpreting them. Even when 

 we enter the domain of practical art, and apply scientific methods to test a 

 great process of manufacture, we do not fail of success ; because we are 

 able to join in united exertion the laborious cultivators of science and the 

 scientific employers of labour. 



Am I asked to give an example? Let it be iron, the one substance by 

 the possession of which, by the true knowledge and right use of which, 

 more than by any other thing, our national greatness is supported. "What 

 are the ores of iron — what the peculiarities and improvements of the 

 smelting processes — what the quality of the iron — its chemical composi- 

 tion — its strength in columns and girders as cast iron ; in rails and 

 boiler plate, in tubes and chains, as wrought iron — what are the best 

 forms in which to employ it, the best methods of preserving it from 

 decay ; — these and many other questions are answered by many special 

 Reports in our volumes, bearing the names of Barlow, Mallet, Porter, Fair- 

 bairn, Bunsen, Playfair, Percy, Budd, Hodgkinson, Thomson ; and very nu- 

 merous other communications from Lucas, Fairbairn, Cooper, Nicholson, 

 Price, Crane, Hartley, Davy, Mushet, Hawkes, Penny, Scoresby, Dawes, 

 Calvert, Clark, Cox, Hodgkinson, May, Schafhaeutl, Johnston, Clay, and 

 Boutigny. Beyond a question, a reader of such of these valuable documents 

 as relate to the strength of iron, in its various forms, would be far better in- 

 formed of the right course to be followed in experiments on armour-plated 

 ships and forts to resist assault, and in the construction of ordnance to at- 

 tack them, than he is likely to be from merely witnessing a thousand trials 

 of the cannon against the target. Anyone who remembers what the iron 

 furnace was forty years ago, and knows its present power of work, or who 

 contrasts the rolling mills and hammers of other days with the beautiful ma- 

 chines which now, with the gentlest motion but irresistible force, compel the 

 strong metal to take up the most delicately moulded form, will acknowledge 

 that, within the period since the British Association began to set itself to the 

 task of reconciling the separated powers of Theory and Experience, there 

 has been a total change in the aspect of each, to the great advantage of both. 



Our undertakings have not been fruitless. We attempted what we had 

 well considered, and had the power to accomplish ; and we had the more than 

 willing help of competent persons of our own body, the friendly aid of other 

 Institutions, and the sanction of the Government, convinced of the sincerity 

 of our purpose and the wisdom of our recommendations. 



The same work is ever before us ; the same prudence is always necessary ; the 

 same aid is always ready. Great indeed should be our happiness, in reflecting on 

 the many occasions, when the Royal Society in particular, and other Institutions 

 older than our own, have readily placed themselves by our side, to share our re- 

 sponsibility and diminish our difliculties. But for this, our wishes might not al- 

 ways have prevailed ; and the horizon of science would not have been so clear 

 as now it is. Of late years, indeed, Societies formed on our model have taken 

 up special parts of our work ; and thus to some extent have relieved us of the 

 pressure of communications relating to the practice of particular professions 

 and the progress of some public questions. Not that scientific agriculture, 

 social statistics, or physiology are neglected in our meetings, but that these and 



* The latest result of these researches is an instrumental standard of electrical resist-^ 

 ance. (Keports of the British Association, 1863-1864. 

 f Reports of the British Association, 1846-1860. 



