TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 835 



related to that of the Sections in which the pliysical and mechanical sciences are 

 studied. The extraordinary advances which have of late years been made in 

 the application of science to industry have materially added to the wealth of 

 the working-classes, and that wealth is more easily earned than in the past. But 

 their knowledge of the great economic laws upon which true progress must 

 depend lias not kept pace •s^itli their increased resources ; nor can this be the case 

 until they are able to grasp the principles of our subject. It may fairly be urged 

 that the advance in physical science is drawing its relitions to economic science 

 closer day by day. May we not be about to witness some of the enormous develop- 

 ments caused by the substitution of machinery for hand-labour which we have for 

 some time past been led to expect ? The rapid exhaustion of coalfields, to which 

 Sir Robert Ball has recently again called attention, is leading to the utilisation of 

 power from other sources, a question with which the President of Section G will 

 doubtless deal. We are told that the falls of Niagara develop a force of 4^ 

 million horse-power, or the equivalent of all the steam-power used in the world, 

 and that steps have been taken for the immediate utilisation from this source of 

 100,000 horse-power, or the equivalent of one forty-fifth part of the steam-power 

 of the globe. Advances such as these in the utilisation and transmission of 

 energy must, by extending the means of production, profoundly affect the wage- 

 earning capacity of the workman, and consequently the general relations between 

 employers and emploj'ed ; and it is the privilege of members of this Section to 

 prepare their countrymen for the altered condition under which they may be 

 called upon to live and work. They must never be weary in setting before all 

 sections of the community the necessity of being ready to fiice such momentous 

 changes as those which I have indicated, and, if I may be permitted to borrow 

 an illustration from electrical science, I would say that their duty is analogous 

 to that of the 'transformers,' of which so much has lately been heard. They 

 deal less with euergy itself than with its control, but their function is so to change 

 forces of tin wonted ' potential ' that those forces may cease to be dangerous and 

 disruptive, and may be made to weld the various efforts of humanity into coherence 

 and strength. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Methods of Social Inquiry. By Professor P. Geddes, 



2. La Science Socials et sa MethoJe. Par M. Demolixs. 



8. Some Notes on. the Compilation of Monograplis on the Economics of large 

 Cities, ivith IHustratiuus from the Case of Glasgow. By Prof. James 

 Mayor. 



1. Description of plan of operations. 



2. Classification of statistics involving modifications of systems of classification 

 adopted by Engel and Le Play. 



3. The industry as the unit of investigation. 



4. The family as the sub-unit. 



5. Miscellaneous character of the industries of Glasgow, and general account of 

 the chief industries. 



0. Conditions of life among artisans employed in the chief industries. 



7. Examples of family monographs. 



8. The practical utility of such investigations. 



4. The Slums of Manchester. By Chas. W. Smiley, M.A. 



A fair sample of the Manchesler slums i? the tract on Oldham Road recently 

 taken by tlie Corporation. It contains 173,800 square fe^t, cr about three acres. 



3 u 2 



