. PRESIDENTIAL ADDKESw'^. 589 



work without an adequate knowledge of what is being done in advancing science 

 and improving methods elsewhere. 1 speak myself for the Meteorological Office 

 alone, but I believe that the responsible officials of any scientific Government 

 department will agree with what I say. 



Year by year some Timotheus ' with his sounding flute and tuneful lyre ' per- 

 forms some miracle by the application of reasoning to the phenomena of Nature. 

 Only last year you heard Professor Love in his Presidential address treat of the 

 mundane question of the shape of the earth and etherealise the grim actualities 

 with the magic of his spherical harmonics. Year by year, in every one of the sub- 

 jects in which the practical world is immediately interested, active students, 

 whether puhlic officials, academic officials, or private enthusiasts, not only keep 

 alight the sacred flame but occasionally add to its brilliance ; and all the new 

 knowledge, from whence soever it comesj ought to be applied to the service of the 

 State. 



The actual volume of original contributions on these subjects is by no means 

 inconsiderable. You are all aware that, some years ago, the lloyal Society initi- 

 ated a great international enterprise for the compilation of a catalogue of scientific 

 literature. I have been looking at the fifth annual issue of the volume on 

 Meteorology, including Terrestrial Magnetism. T may remark that the cata- 

 logue is quite incompreheusibly eclectic as regards official literature, but let that 

 pass. I find that, in the year that closed with July 1007, 1,042 authors (not 

 counting offices and institutions as such) presented to the world 2,131 papers on 

 Meteorology, 229 on Atmospheric Electricity, and 180 on Terrestrial Magnetism. 

 This will give some idea of the annual growth in these subjects, and may convince 

 you that, after all allowance is made (or duplicate titles, for papers of no import- 

 ance, and for mere sheets of figures published for purposes of reference, there 

 remains a bulk of literature too large for any single individual to cope with if he 

 has anything else to do. 



If instead of confining ourselves to what can be included in meteorology alone 

 we extend our view over the other allied sciences, it would be necessary to take 

 in other volumes of the international catalogue, and there would be some over- 

 lapping. I have taken instead the volume of the ' Fortschritte der Physik ' for 

 1906, which deals with ' Kosmische Physik,' It is edited by Professor Assmann, 

 who adds to his distinction as head of the Royal Prussian Aeronautical Observatory 

 of Lindenberg that of an accomplished bibliographer. In this volume are giveii 

 abstracts or titles of the papers published during the year which can be regarded 

 as worthy of the attention of a physicist. An examination of the volume gives 

 the following numbers of the papers in the different sections : — 



Papers 



Astro-Physics 222 



Meteorology . . . . . , 

 Atmospheric Electricity .... 

 Geophysics : 



Geodetics 



Seismology and Volcanic Phenomena 



Terrestrial Magnetism and Aurora 



Currents, Tides, and 'Waves 



Inland Hydrography 



Ice, Glaciers, and Ice Age . 



Other papers . . . . , 



Total t . . 1 



I need hardly say that these 2,376 papers are not all English : in some of the 

 sections few of them are in that language, and fewer still are British. If British 

 students, official and unofficial, are to make the most of the operation of drawin"- 

 the angels down, they need help and co-operation in dealing with this mass of 

 literature, in winnowing the importaTit from the unimportant, and in assimilating 

 that which makes for the real progress of the practical application of Science. 



