Reports and Proceedings — Prof. Green's Address. 475 



Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, 



Leeds, 1890. 

 Address to the Geological Section of the British Association. 

 By Professor A. H. Green, M.A., F.R.S., of the University of 

 Oxford, President of the Section, September 4th, 1890. 



THE truth must be told ; and this obliges me to confess that my contributions 

 to our stock of geological knowledge, never very numerous, have of late years 

 been conspicuously few, and so I have nothing to bring before the Geological Section 

 that can lay any claim to be the result of original research. 



In fact, nearly all my time duriug the last fifteen years has been taken up in 

 teaching. This has led me to think a good deal about the value of geology as an 

 educational instrument, and how its study compares with that of other branches of 

 learning in its capability of giving sinew and fibre to the mind, and I have to ask 

 you to listen to an exposition of the notions that have for a long time been taking 

 shape bit by bit in my mind on this subject. 



1 am not going to enter into the question, handled repeatedly and by this time 

 pretty well thrashed out, of the relative value of natural science, literature, and 

 mathematics as a means of educational discipline ; for no one who is lucky enough 

 to know a little of all three, will deny that each has an importance of its own and 

 its own special place in a full and perfect curriculum. The question which is the 

 most valuable of the three I decline to entertain, on the broad general ground that 

 " comparisons are odorous," and for the special reason that the answer must depend 

 on the constitution of the mind that is to be disciplined. I might quite as reason- 

 ably attempt to lay down that a certain diet which suits my constitution and mode 

 of life, must agree equally well with all that hear me. 



I need scarcely say that nothing would induce me, if it could possibly be helped, 

 to say one word that might tend to disparage the pursuit to which we are all so 

 deeply attached. But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that, when geology is to 

 be used as a means of education, there are certain attendant risks that need to be 

 carefuily and watchfully guarded against. 



Geologists, and I do not pretend myself to be any better than the rest of them, 

 are in danger continually of becoming loose reasoners. I have often had occasion 

 to feel this, and I recall a scene which brought it home to me most forcibly. At 

 a gathering, where several of our best English geologists were present, the question 

 of the causes of changes of climate was under discussion. The explanation which 

 found most favour was a change of the position of the axis of rotation within the 

 earth itself; and this, it was suggested, might have been brought about by the 

 upheaval of great bodies of continental and mountainous land where none now exist, 

 and an accompanying depression of the existing continents or parts of them. That 

 such a redistribution of the heavier material of the earth would result in some 

 shifting of the axis of rotation admits of no doubt. The important question is, 

 How much ? What degree of rearrangement of land and sea would be needed to 

 produce a shift of the amount required F It is purely a question of figures, and the 

 necessary calculations can be made only by a mathematician. 1 ventured to suggest 

 that some one who could work out the sum should be consulted before a final decision 

 was arrived at, for I knew perfectly well that not one of the company present could 

 do it. But if I say that my advice met with scant approval, I should represent very 

 inadequately the lack of support I met with. The bulk of those present seemed 

 quite content with the vague feeling that the thing could be doue in the way 

 suggested, and there was a general air of indifference as to whether the hypothesis 

 would stand the test of numerical verification or not. 



I could bring many other similar instances which seem to me to justify the charge 

 I have ventured to make ; but it will be more useful to inquire what it is that has 

 led to a failing, which, if it really exist, must be a source of regret to the whole 

 brotherhood of hammerers. 



