ADDRESS. IXXXV 



report would have been written in vain, if it had not brought clearly into 

 view the immense influence of pure science upon the progress of industry. 

 If unfortunately the sacred flame of science should burn dimly or be extin- 

 guished, the practical arts would soon fall into rapid decay. The outlay 

 which is incurred by any country for the promotion of science and of high 

 instruction will yield a certain return ; and Germany has not had long to wait 

 for the ingathering of the fruits of her far-sighted policy. Thirty or forty 

 years ago, industry could scarcely be said to exist there ; it is now widely 

 spread and successful." As an illustration of the truth of these remarks, I 

 may refer to the newest of European industries, but one which in a short 

 space of time has attained considerable magnitude. It appears (and I make 

 the statement on the authority of M. Wurtz) that the artificial dyes produced 

 last year in Germany exceeded in value those of all the rest of Europe, in- 

 cluding England and France. Yet Germany has no special advantage for 

 this manufacture except the training of her practical chemists. We are not, 

 it is true, to attach undue importance to a single case ; but the rapid growth 

 of other and larger industries points in the same direction, and will, I trust, 

 secure some consideration for the suggestions I have ventured to make. 



The intimate relations which exist between abstract science and its appli- 

 cations to the uses of life have always been kept steadily in view by this 

 Association, and the valuable Reports, which are a monument to the indiistry 

 and zeal of its members, embrace every part of the domain of science. It is 

 with the greater confidence, therefore, that I have ventured to suggest from 

 this Chair that no partition wall should anywhere be raised up between pure 

 and applied science. The same sentiment animates our vigorous ally, the 

 French Association for the Advancement of Science, which rivalling, as it 

 already does, this Association in the high scientific character of its proct^ed- 

 ings, bids fair in a few years to call forth the same interest in science and its 

 results, throughout the great provincial towns of France, which the Erilish 

 Association may justly claim to have already efi'ected in this country. No 

 better proof can be given of the wide base upon which the French Associa- 

 tion rests, than the fact that it was presided over last year by an able repre- 

 sentative of commerce and industry, and this year by one who has long 

 held an exalted position in the world of science, and has now the rare di- 

 stinction of representing in her historic Academies the literature as well as 

 the science of France. 



Whatever be the result of our efforts to advance science and industry, it 

 requires no gift of prophecy to declare that the boundless resources which 

 the supreme Author and Upholder of the Universe has provided for the use 

 of man will, as time rolls on, be more and more fully applied to the im- 

 provement of the physical and, through the improvement of the i)hysical, to 

 the elevation of the moral condition of the human family. Unless, however, 

 the history of the future of our race be wholly at variance with the hi&tory 



