ADDRESS 



OF 



GEOEGE GABRIEL STOKES, M.A., Sec. R.8., 



D.C.L. OXOIf., LL.D. DUBLIST, 



FELLOW OF TEMBEOKE COLLEQE, AND LUCASIAlf PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN 

 THE TTNIVERSITT OF CAMBRIDGE, 



PllESIDENT. 



Mr Lords, Ladies, akd Gentlemen, 



As this is the lirst time that the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science has met in the City of Exeter, and it is probable that many now 

 present have never attended a former Meeting, I hope the okler members of 

 the Association will bear Avitli me if I say a few words in explanation of the 

 objects for which the Association was instituted. In the first place, then, 

 it aims at fulfilling an office which is quite distinct from that of the various 

 scientific societies which are established in different parts of the coimtry. 

 These, for the most part, have for their leading object to make the volun- 

 tary labours of isolated workers in science available to the scientific Avorld 

 generally by receiving, discussing, and publishing the results which they may 

 have obtained. The British Association, on the other hand, aims at giving 

 a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, and that in various ways. 



In a rapidly progressing branch of science it is by no means easy to become 

 acquainted with its actual state. The workers in it are scattered throughout 

 the civilized world, and their results are published in a variety of Transac- 

 tions and scientific periodicals, mixed with other scientific matter. To make 

 oneself, without assistance, well acquainted with what has been done, it is 

 requisite to have access to an extensive library, to be able to read with faci- 

 lity several modern languages, and to have leisure to hunt through the tables 

 of contents, or at least the indices, of a number of serial works. Without 

 such knowledge, there is always the risk that a scientific man may spend his 

 strength in doing over again what has been done already ; whereas with 

 better direction the same expenditure of time and labour might have resulted 

 in some substantial addition to our knowledge. With a view to meet this 

 difficulty, the British Association has requested individuals who were more 

 specially conversant with particular departments of science, to draw up re- 

 ports on the present state of our knowledge in, or on the recent progress of, spe- 

 cial branches ; and the influence of the Association as a public body has been 

 found sufficient to induce a number of scientific men to undertake the great 

 labour of preparing such reports. 



By thus ascertaining thoroughly what we already had, what we still 

 wanted was made more clear ; and, indeed, it was one special object of the 

 reports I have mentioned to point out what were the more prominent desi- 



