ADDEESS 



BY 



Professor JAMES DEWAR, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



PRESIDENT. 



The members of an Association whose studies involve perpetual con- 

 templation of settled law and ordered evolution, whose objects are to 

 seek patiently for the truth of things and to extend the dominion of man 

 over the forces of nature, are even more deeply pledged than other men 

 to loyalty to the Crown and the Constitution which procure for them the. 

 essential conditions of calm security and social stability. I am confident 

 that I express the sentiments of all now before me when I say that to 

 our loyal respect for his high office we add a warmer feeling of loyalty and 

 attachment to the person of our Gracious Sovereign. It is the peculiar 

 felicity of the British Association that, since its foundation seventy-one 

 years ago, it has always been easy and natural to cherish both these senti- 

 ments, which indeed can never be dissociated without peril. At this, our 

 second meeting held under the present reign, these sentiments are realised 

 all the more vividly, because, in common with the whole empire, we have 

 recently passed through a period of acute apprehension, followed by the 

 uplifting of a national deliverance. The splendid and imposing coronation 

 ceremony which took place just a month ago was rendered doubly 

 impressive both for the King and his people by the universal conscious- 

 ness that it was also a service of thanksgiving for escape from imminent 

 peril. In offering to His Majesty our most hearty congratulations upon 

 his singularly rapid recovery from a dangerous illness, we rejoice to think 

 that the nation has received gratifying evidence of the vigour of his 

 constitution, and may, with confidence more assured than before, pray 

 that he may have length of happy and prosperous days. No one in his 

 wide dominions is more competent than the King to realise how much he 

 owes, not only to the skill of his surgeons, but also to the equipment 

 which has been placed in their hands as the combined result of scientific 

 investigation in many and diverse directions. He has already displayed 

 a profound and sagacious interest in the discovery of methods for dealing 

 with some of the most intractable maladies that still baffle scientific 

 penetration ; nor can we doubt that this interest extends to other forms 

 of scientific investigation, more directly connected with the amelioration 



b2 



