2 REPORT 1878. 



address consists, not so much in the multitude of things therein brought 

 forward, as in the individuality of the mode in -which they are treated. 



The British Association has already entered its fifth decade. It has 

 held its meetings, this the 48th, in twenty-eight different towns. In six 

 cities of note, viz., York, Bristol, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Plymouth, Man- 

 chester, and Belfast, its curve of progress may be said to have a node, or 

 point through which it has twice passed ; in the five Universities of 

 Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and in the two 

 great commercial centres, Liverpool and Birmingham, it may similarly 

 be said to have a triple point, or one through which it has three times 

 passed. Of our forty-six Presidents more than half (twenty-six, in fact) have 

 passed away ; while the remainder hold important posts in Science, and in 

 the Public Service, or in other avocations not less honourable in themselves, 

 nor less useful to the commonwealth. And whether it be due to the salu- 

 brity of the climate or to the calm and dispassionate spirit in which Science 

 is pursued by its votaries here, I do not pretend to say ; but it is a fact 

 that the earliest of our ex- Presidents still living, himself one of the original 

 members of the Association, is a native of and resident in this country. 



At both of our former meetings held in Dublin, in 1835 and 1857 

 respectively, while greatly indebted to the liberal hospitality of the citi- 

 zens at large, we were, as we now are, under especial obligations to the 

 authorities of Trinity College for placing at our disposal buildings, not 

 only unusually spacious and convenient in themselves, but full of remini- 

 scences calculated to awake the scientific sympathies of all who may be 

 gathered in them. At both of those former Dublin meetings the vene- 

 rable name of Lloyd figured at our head ; and if long-established custom 

 had not seemed to preclude it, I could on many accounts have wished 

 that we had met for a third time under the same name. And although 

 other distinguished men, such as Dr. Robinson, Professors Stokes, Tyn- 

 dall, and Andrews, are similarly disqualified by having already passed the 

 Presidential chair, while others again, such as Sir W. R. Hamilton, Dr. 

 M'Cullagh, and Professor Jukes, are permanently lost to our ranks ; still 

 we should not have had far to seek, had we looked for a President in this 

 fertile island itself. But as every one connected with the place of meet- 

 ing partakes of the character of host towards ourselves as guests, it has 

 been thought by our oldest and most experienced members that we 

 should better respond to an invitation by bringing with us a President to 

 speak as our representative than by seeking one on the spot ; and we 

 may always hope on subsequent occasions that some of our present hosts 

 may respond to a similar call. 



But leaving our past history, which will form a theme more appro- 

 priate to our jubilee meeting in 1881, at the ancient city of York, I will 

 ask your attention to a few particulars of our actual operations. 



Time was when the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh and 

 the Royal Irish Academy were the only representative bodies of 



