B.— CHEMISTRY, 27 



I'uinid in the changed attitude of the State towards scientific education 

 iind discovery. Remember Brewster's fond hope that, by means of our 

 Association, the whole status of science would be raised, and that a 

 greater measui-e of support and encouragement would be received from 

 the Government. How eagerly the venerable physicist must have 

 listened to the Presidential Address delivered at the twenty-third meeting 

 of the Association assembled in Hull for the first time! It dealt vvi<.h 

 many problems familiar to him. No doubt he followed with keen 

 interest the account of the observations on NebultB made with Lord 

 Rosse's telescope, and appreciated the references to the -vork of Joule 

 and Thomson. The address was a masterly synopsis of scientific pro- 

 gress, but from time to time a new note steals in. There is a signifi- 

 cant reference to a consultation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 another to a conversation with Mr. Gladstone, and a third to a working 

 arrangement concluded with the Admiralty. These would fall sweetly 

 on Brewster's ear, and he would cordially approve of the report of our 

 Parliamentary Committee which had established sympathetic contact 

 with the House of Commons. He could not fail to be impressed with 

 the changes a few years had brought. 



Let us bridge the further gap of sixty-nine years which separates 

 us from that day. The contrast is amazing, and once more we can 

 trace the steady, persistent influence of the British Association in 

 bringing about what is practically a revolution in public and official 

 opinion. We have learned many lessons. The change has come 

 suddenly, but it was not spontaneous. Many years had to be spent 

 in disseminating the idea that research is a vital necessity, and toward 

 this end Presidents of our Association have not hesitated, year after 

 year, to add the weight of their influence and eloquence. It was 

 courageous of them to do so. I would refer you particularly to the 

 forcible appeals made by Sir James Dewar at Belfast and Sir Norman 

 Lockyer at Southport, when the plea for more research was laid before 

 the Association, and thus found its way by the most direct channel to 

 the Press and to the public. No doubt many other factors have played 

 a part in creating a research atmosphere in this country, but the steady 

 pressure exerted by the British Association is not the least important 

 of these influences. 



The principles of science are to-day widely spread; systematic 

 scientific training has found an honourable place in the schools and 

 in the colleges ; above all, there is the realisat^ion that much of human 

 progress is based on scientific inquiry, and at last this is fostered, and, 

 in part, financed as a definite unit of national educational policy. Public 

 funds are devoted to provide facilities for those who are competent to 

 pursue scientific investigations, and in this way the State, acting through 

 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, has assumed the 

 double responsibility of providing for the advancement of knowledge 

 and for the application of scientific methods to industry. Scientists 

 have been given the opportunities they desired, and it remains for us 

 to justify all that has been done. We have this morning glanced briefly 

 at the painful toil and long years of preparation; now it falls to us to 

 sow the first crop and reap the first harvest. 



