all atta ta 
TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION G. 895 
It is interesting also to notice, that the metric system is being gradually intro- 
duced into other branches of science. Anthropometric measurements made by the 
Committees of the British Association in this country and in Canada are invariably 
given in metres, and a comparison with meesurements made in other countries can 
be at once made. 
The period of twenty-five years under review has indeed witnessed great 
advances, both in scientific knowledge and practical application. This progress has 
led to powerful yet peaceful competition between the leading nations. Both from 
among our cousins of the United States, and from our nearer neighbours of 
Europe, have we, at this Meeting, the pleasure of welcoming most respected repre- 
sentatives. But their presence, and the knowledge of the great discoveries made, 
and colossal works carried out, by them and their brother scientists and engineers, 
must make us of Great Britain face with increased earnestness the problem of 
maintaining our national position, at any rate, in the forefront of all that tends 
towards the ‘utilisation of the great sources of power in Nature for the use and 
convenience of man.’ Those English engineers who have been brought in contact 
with engineering thought and action in America and abroad have been impressed 
with the thoroughness of much of the work, the great power of organisation, and 
the careful reliance upon scientific principles constantly kept in view, and upon 
chemical and mechanical experiments, carried out often upon a much more 
elaborate scale than in this country. This is not the place from which to discuss 
the questions of bounties and tariffs, which have rendered possible powerful com- 
petition for the supply of machinery and railway plant from the Continent to our 
own Colonies ; but there is certainly need for advance all along the line of mechani- 
cal science and practice, if we are to hold our own—need especially to study the 
mechanical requirements of the world, ever widening and advancing, and to be 
ready to meet them, by inventive faculty first, but also by rigid adherence to . 
sound principles of construction, to the use of materials and workmanship of the 
hichest class, to simplicity of design and detail, and to careful adaptation of our 
productions to the special circumstances of the various markets. 
It is impossible to forecast in what direction the great advances since 1871 will 
be equalled and exceeded in the coming quarter of a century. Progress there will 
and must be, probably in increased ratio ; and some, at the end of that period, may 
be able to look back upon our gathering here in Liverpool in 1896 as dealing with 
subjects then long since left behind in the race towards perfection. 
The mechanical engineer may fairly hope for still greater results in the per- 
fection of machinery, the reduction of friction, the economical use of fuel, the 
substitution of oil for coal as fuel in many cases, and the mechanical treatment 
of many processes still dependent upon the human hand. 
The electrical engineer (hampered as he has been in this country by unwise 
and retrograde legislation) may surely look forward to a wonderful expansion in 
the use of that mysterious force, which he has already learned so wonderfully to 
control, especially in the direction of traction. 
The civil engineer has still great channels to bridge or tunnel, vast communi- 
ties to supply with water and illuminating power, and (most probably with the 
‘assistance of the electrician) far higher speeds of locomotion to attain. He has 
‘before him vast and ever-increasing problems for the sanitary benefit of the world, 
and it will be for him to deal from time to time with the amazing internal traffic 
of great cities. China lies before him, Japan welcomes all advance, and Africa is 
great with opportunities for the coming engineers. 
Let us see to it, then, that our rising engineers are carefully educated and 
prepared for these responsibilities of the future, and that our scientific brethren 
may be ever ready to open up for them by their researches fresh vistas of possibili- 
ties, fresh discoveries of those wonderful powers and facts of Nature which man 
to all time will never exhaust. 
The Mechanical Section of the British Association has done good work in this 
direction in the past, and we may look forward with confidence to our younger 
brethren to maintain these traditions in the future. 
