ADDEESS 



BY 



Sm WILLIAM CROOKES, F.E.S, V.P.C.S. 



PRESIDENT. 



For the third time in its history the British Association meets in your 

 City of Bristol. The first meeting was held under the presidency of the 

 Marquis of Lansdowne in 1836, the second under the presidency of 

 Sir John Hawkshaw in 1875. Formerly the President unrolled to the 

 meeting a panorama of the year's progress in physical and biological 

 sciences. To-day the President usually restricts himself to specialities 

 connected with his own work or deals with questions which for 

 the time are uppermost. To be President of the British Association 

 is undoubtedly a great honour. It is also a great opportunity and a great 

 responsibility ; for I know that, on the wings of the Press, my words, be 

 they worthy or not, will be carried to all points of the compass. I propose 

 first to deal with the important question of the supply of bread to the 

 inhabitants of these Islands, then to touch on subjects to which 

 my life work has been more or less devoted. I shall not attempt any 

 general survey of the sciences ; these, so far as the progress in them 

 demands attention, will be more fitly brought before you in the difierent 

 Sections, either in the Addresses of the Presidents or in communications 

 from ^lembers. 



Before proceeding with my address I wish to refer to the severe loss 

 the British Association has sustained in^the death of Lord Playfair. Witli 

 Sir John Lubbock and Lord Rayleigh, Lord Playfair was one of the 

 Permanent Trustees of our Association, and for many years he was 

 present at our meetings. It would be difficult to overrate his loss to 

 British science. Lord Playfair's well-matured and accurate judgment, 

 his scientific knowledge, and his happy gift of clothing weighty thoughts 

 in pei'suasive language, made his presence acceptable, whether in the 

 council chamber, in departmental enquiries, or at light social gatherings, 

 where by the singular laws of modern society, momentous announcements 

 are sometimes first given to the world. Lord Playfair (then Sir Lyon 



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