30 EEPORT— 1895. 



The compact nature of the glow-lamp, the brightness of the light, the 

 circumstance that the light is not due to combustion, and therefore inde- 

 pendent of air, facilitates the examination of the bore of guns, the ii^sides 

 of shells, and other similar uses — just as it is used by a doctor to 

 examine the throat of a patient. 



Influence of Intercommunication afforded by British Association 



ON Science Progress. 



The advances in engineering which have produced the steam-engine, 

 the railway, the telegraph, as well as our engines of war, may be said to 

 be the result of commercial enterprise rendered possible only by the 

 advances which have taken place in the several branches of science 

 since 1831. Having regard to the intimate relations which the several 

 sciences bear to each other, it is abundantly clear that much of this pro- 

 gress could not have taken place in the past, nor could further progress 

 take place in the future, without intercommunication between the 

 students of different branches of science. 



The founders of the British Association based its claims to utility 

 upon the power it afforded for this intercommunication. Mr. Vernon 

 Harcourt (the uncle of your present General Secretary), in the address he 

 delivered in 1832, said : 'How feeble is man for any purpose when he 

 stands alone — how strong when united with other men ! 



' It may be true that the greatest philosophical works have been 

 achieved in privacy, but it is no less true that these works would never 

 have been accomplished had the authors not mingled with men of corre- 

 sponding pursuits, and from the commerce of ideas often gathered germs 

 of apparently insulated discoveries, and without such material aid would 

 seldom have carried their investigations to a valuable conclusion.' 



I claim for the British Association that it has fulfilled the objects of 

 its founders, that it has had a large share in promoting intercommunication 

 and combination. 



Our meetings have been successful because they have maintained the 

 true principles of scientific investigation. We have been able to secure 

 the continued presence and concurrence of the master-spirits of science. 

 They have been willing to sacrifice their leisure, and to promote the 

 welfare of the Association, because the meetings have afibrded them the 

 means of advancing the sciences to which they are attached. 



The Association has, moreover, justified the views of its founders in 

 promoting intercourse between the pursuers of science, both at home and 

 abroad, in a manner which is afforded by no other agency. 



The weekly and sessional reunions of the Royal Society, and the 

 annual soirees of other scientific societies, promote this intercourse to 

 some extent, but the British Association presents to the young student 

 during its week of meetings easy and continuous social opportunities for 



