2 iiEPORT — 1882. 



by this event, by the happy one of the safe return to these shores of that 

 most persistent and disinterested Arctic explorer, Mr. B. Leigh Smith, 

 together -with his much enduring crew and valiant rescuers. 



Since the days of the first meeting of the Association in York in 

 1831, great changes have taken place in the means at our disposal 

 for exchanging views, either personally or through the medium of type. 

 The creation of the railway system has enabled congenial minds to 

 attend frequent meetings of those special Societies which have sprung 

 into existence since the foundation of the British Association, amongst 

 which I need only name here the Physical, Geographical, Meteorological, 

 and Anthropological, cultivating abstract science, and the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers, of Naval Architects, the Iron and Steel Institute, 

 the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, the Gas Institute, 

 the Sanitary Institute, and the Society of Chemical Industry, repre- 

 senting applied science. These meet at frequent intervals in London, 

 whilst others, having similar objects in view, hold their meetings at 

 the University towns, and at other centres of intelligence and industry 

 throughout the country, giving evidence of great mental activity, and 

 producing some of those very results which the founders of the British 

 Association wished to see realised. If we consider fui-ther the extra- 

 ordinary development of scientific journalism which has taken place, 

 it cannot surprise us when we meet with expressions of opinion to the 

 effect that the British Association has fulfilled its mission, and should 

 now yield its place to those special Societies it has served to call into 

 existence. On the other hand, it may be urged that the brilliant success 

 of last year's Anniversary Meeting, enhanced by the comprehensive address 

 delivered on that occasion by my distinguished predecessor in ofiice, 

 Sir John Lubbock, has proved, at least, that the British Association is 

 not dead in the aflections of its members, and it behoves us at this, the 

 first ordinary gathering in the second half-century, to consider what are 

 the strong points to rely upon for the continuance of a career of success 

 and usefulness. 



If the facilities brought home to our doors of acquiring scientific 

 information have increased, the necessities for scientific inquiry have 

 increased in a greater ratio. The time was when science was cultivated 

 only by the few, who looked npon its application to the arts and 

 manufactures as almost beneath their consideration ; this they were 

 content to leave in the hands of others, who, with only commercial aims 

 in view, did not aspire to further the objects of science for its own sake, 

 but thought only of benefiting by its teachings. Progress could not be 

 rapid under this condition of things, because the man of pure science 

 rarely pursued his inquiry beyond the mere enunciation of a physical 

 or chemical principle, whilst the simple practitioner was at a loss how 

 to harmonise the new knowledge with the stock of information which 

 formed his mental capital in trade. 



