pkesident's address. 5' 



I. TiiK Increase op Knowlkdge in the Several Branches of Science. 



The boundaries of my own understanding and the practical considera- 

 tion of what is appropriate to a brief address must limit my attempt to 

 */ive to the general public who follow with friendly interest our proceedings 

 some presentation of what li i . been going on in the workshops of science 

 in this last quarter of a century. My point of view is essentially that of 

 the naturalist, and in my endeavour to speak of some of the new things 

 and new properties of things discovered in recent years I find it is im- 

 possible to give any systematic or detailed account of what has been done 

 in each division of science. All that I can attempt is to mention some of 

 tlie discoveries which have aroused my own interest and admiration. I 

 feel, indeed, that it is necessary to ask your forbearance for my presump- 

 tion in daring to speak of so many subjects in which I cannot claim to 

 speak as an authority, but only as a younger brother full of fraternal pride 

 and sympathy in the glorious achievements of the great experimentalists 

 and discoverers of our day. The duty of attempting some indication of 

 their work is placed upon me as your President, and it is for my effort to 

 discharge that duty that I ask your generous consideration. 



As one might expect, the progress of the knowledge of nature (for 

 it is to that rather than to the historical, moral and mental sciences 

 that English-speaking people refer when they use the word ' science ") has 

 consisted, in the last twenty-five years, in the amplification and fuller 

 verification of principles and theories already accepted, and in the discovery 

 of liitherto unknown things Avhich either have fallen into place in the 

 existing scheme of each science or have necessitated new views, some not 

 very disturbing to existing general conceptions, others of a more startling 

 and, at first sight, disconcerting cliaracter. Nevertheless I think I am 

 justified in saying that, exciting and of entrancing interest as have been 

 some of the discoveries of the past few years, there has been nothing to 

 lead us to conclude that we have been on the wrong path— nothing which 

 is really revolutionary : that is to say, nothing which cannot be accepted by 

 an intelligible modification of previous conceptions. There is, in fact, 

 continuity and healthy evolution in the realm of science. Whilst some 

 onlookers have declared to the public that science is at an end, its possi- 

 bilities exhausted, and but little of the hopes it raised realised, others have 

 asserted, on the contrary, that the new discoveries — such as those relating 

 to the X-rays and to radium— are so inconsistent with previous knowledge 

 as to shake the foundations of science, and to justify a belief in any and 

 every absurdity of an unrestrained fancy. These two reciprocally 

 destructive accusations are due to a class of persons wlio must be described 

 as the enemies of science. Whether their attitude is due to ignorance or 

 traditions of self-interest, such persons exist ; and it is one of the objects of 

 this Association to combat their assertions and to demonstrate, by the 

 discoveries announced at its meetings and the consequent orderly building 



