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ON THE NECESSITY FOR THE AMATEUR SPIRIT 

 IN SCIENTIFIC WORK. 



Being the Presidential Address delivered at Bradford on 

 January 2/'//z, igo6. 



G. VV. LAMPLUGH, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



It is with a somewhat uneasy conscience that at this, the close 

 of my Presidency, I undertake for the first time the duties proper 

 to the Chair. In proffering my apologfy to the members of the 

 Union for such apparent neg'lect, I shall venture to plead that 

 the contingent circumstances which, in the event, have barred 

 my presence from any of the meetings of the Union during the 

 past year were made known beforehand to your Executive, and 

 were met by a gentle hint that if I could manage, in case of 

 absence, to secure a continuance of the active services of your 

 last President, the interests of the Union would suffer no detri- 

 ment whatever. This, through the kindly acquiescence of Mr. 

 Pawson, I was fortunately able to do, and feel that in this 

 matter I have acquired merit. 



Nevertheless, I was uncomfortably reminded of the state of 

 the Union during the homeward voyage from South Africa, 

 when our Amateur Dramatic Company produced a new and 

 original play entitled 'The Lost President,' the plot of which 

 turned upon the mysterious disappearance of the President of 

 an Association, who, before he was discovered, had unexpectedly 

 reverted to the parent stock ! It is with an echo of this whim- 

 sical little plot in mind that, being now here to address you, I 

 shall claim the privilege of reverting to the parent stock of my 

 own work, and shall take the standpoint of the amateur rather 

 than of one to whom scientific investigation has become a matter 

 of daily duty. From this standpoint I shall seek to direct your 

 attention to some of the general responsibilities that rest upon 

 us in taking part in the advancement of knowledge. 



When the necessity for preparing this address was brought 

 forcibly home to me by the whip of our genial Hon. Secretary 

 I hesitated between two courses. One, the easier and pleasanter, 

 was to face inward over the excellent results that have already 

 been achieved in almost every branch of science by amateur 

 workers in our county, a course which could not fail to put us 

 on good terms with ourselves as Yorkshiremen. But, being 



1906 March i. 



