4 EEPORT 1888. 



the Civil Engineer of the present day has achieved some of the labours 

 of vrhich I now wish to speak to you. 



An Association for the Advancement of Science is necessarily one of 

 such broad scope in its objects, and is so thoroughly catholic as regards 

 Science, that the only possible way in which it can carry out those 

 objects at all, is to segregate its members into various subsidiary bodies, 

 or sections, engaged on particular branches of Science. Even when this 

 division is resorted to, it is a hardy thing to say that every conceivable 

 scientific subject can be dealt with by the eight Sections of the British 

 Association. Nevertheless, as we know, for fifty-seven years the Asso- 

 ciation has carried on its labours under Sections, and has earned the 

 right to say that it has done good service to all branches of Science. 



Composed, as the Association is, of a union of separate Sections, it is 

 only right and according to the fitness of things that, as time goes on, 

 your Presidents should be selected, in some sort of rotation, from the 

 various Sections. This year it was felt, by the Council and the Members, 

 that the time had once more arrived when Section G — the Mechanical 

 Section — might put forward its claim to be represented in the Presidency ; 

 the last time on which a purely engineering Member filled the chair 

 havinsr been at Bristol in 1875, when that position was occujiied by Sir 

 John Hawkshaw. It is true that at Southampton, in 1882, our lamented 

 friend, Sir William Siemens, was President, and it is also true that he 

 was a most thorough engineer and representative of Section G ; but all 

 who knew his great scientific attainments will probably agree that, on that 

 occasion, it was rather the Physical Section A which was represented, than 

 the ]Mechanical Section G. 



I am aware, it is said. Section G does not contribute much to 

 pure Science by original research, but that it devotes itself more to the 

 application of Science. There may be some foundation for this assertion, 

 but I cannot refrain from the observation, that when Engineers, such as 

 Siemens, Rankine, Sir William Thomson, Fairbairn, or Armstrong, make 

 a scientific discovery. Section A says it is made, not in the capacity 

 of an Engineer, and, therefore, does not appertain to Section G, but in 

 the capacity of a Physicist, and therefore appertains to Section A — an 

 illustration of the danger of a man's filling two positions, of which the 

 composite Prince-Bishop is the well-known type. But I am not careful 

 to labour this point, or even to dispute that Section G does not do much 

 for original research. I don't agree it is a fact, but, for the purposes of 

 this evening, I will concede it to be so. But what then ? This Associa- 

 tion is for the ' Advancement of Science ' — the Advancement be it remem- 

 bered ; and I wish to point out to you, and I trust I shall succeed 

 in establishing, that for the Advancement of Science it is absolutely 

 necessary there should be the Application of Science, and that, therefore, 

 the Section, which as much as any other (or, to state the fact more truly, 

 which more than any other) in the Association applies Science, is doing 



