ADDRESS 



OF 



WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, Esq., 



M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., F.P.S., F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., 



PRESIDENT. 



On looking back at the long array of distinguished men who both in this 

 and in the sister countries have filled the chair of the British Association ; 

 on considering also the increased pains which have been bestowed upon, 

 and the increased importance attaching to, the Presidential Address ; it 

 may well happen when, as on this occasion, your choice has fallen upon 

 one outside the sphere of professional Science, that your nominee should 

 feel unusual diffidence in accepting the post. Two considerations have 

 however in my own case outweighed all reasons for hesitation : First, the 

 uniform kindness which I received at the hands of the Association 

 throughout the eight years during which I had the honour of holding 

 another office ; and, secondly, the conviction that the same goodwill 

 which was accorded to your Treasurer would be extended to your Presi- 

 dent. 



These considerations have led me to arrange my observations under 

 two heads, viz., I propose first to offer some remarks upon the purposes 

 and prospects of the Association with which, through your suffrages, I 

 have been so long and so agreeably connected ; and, secondly, to indulge 

 in a few reflexions, not indeed upon the details or technical progress, but 

 upon the external aspects and tendencies of the Science which on this 

 occasion I have the honour to represent. The former of these subjects is 

 perhaps trite ; but as an old man is allowed to become garrulous on his 

 own hobby, so an old officer may be pardoned for lingering about a 

 favourite theme. And although the latter may appear somewhat un- 

 promising, I have decided to make it one of the topics of my discourse, 

 from the consideration that the holder of this office will generally do 

 better by giving utterance to what has already become part of his 

 own thought, than by gathering matter outside of its habitual range for 

 the special occasion. For, as it seems to me, the interest (if any) of an 

 1878. a 



