xX NARRATIVE OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. 
on the active support of many of the leading men in British science. It 
was, therefore, bound to succeed. Men like Brewster, Dalton, Robert 
Brown, Faraday, Lyell, Murchison, Whewell, Sedgwick and Forbes, took 
a prominent part in its proceedings and gave prestige to the infant 
Association. At a later date, most of the great figures in British science 
took an active part in its work; and with a few exceptions, the list of 
Presidents reads like a roll-call of all that is most distinguished in British 
science. The Association has served its purpose admirably as an effective 
sounding board of the scientific advance. Here were fought out great 
controversies, like that over Darwin’s theory of descent, and the din of 
battle helped to give impetus to the new views. Here great discoveries 
were announced ; here Joule explained his epoch-making researches into 
the mechanical equivalent of heat ; here Rayleigh and Ramsay announced 
the discovery of argon which led to the discovery of the other inert 
elements; here Fitzgerald first announced Hertz’s verification of Clerk 
Maxwell’s theory of electro-magnetic waves ; here Sir Oliver Lodge gave 
the first public demonstration of wireless; most epoch-making of all, 
here Sir Joseph Thomson announced his discovery of the electron. I could 
greatly extend this list of famous discoveries announced or proclaimed at 
meetings of the Association, but the foregoing will suffice. 
‘Nor has the Association been content to cater for science in these islands 
only. From the eighties of last century onward, it has extended its 
mission to the Dominions, having visited Canada four times, South Africa 
twice, and Australia once. These Dominion visits have not been among 
the least fruitful and valuable meetings of the Association. Dominion 
workers have thereby been inspired and stimulated in a way which 
would not have been possible otherwise ; lines of research in the Dominions 
have been suggested and started which have led to fruitful results. British 
men of science, again, have come into contact with the wider problems 
presented by Dominion conditions, and have had to adjust their views to 
new and larger situations. The exchanges of science at these Dominion 
meetings have thus been mutually helpful, and apart from the purely 
scientific results, these meetings have served a useful purpose in stimulating 
the sense of fellow-feeling and comradeship in the Empire as a whole. 
The response is seen in this great gathering, which in a sense represents a 
return visit of the Dominion Associations to the Mother Association, and 
a symposium of Empire science in the widest sense. 
‘Is it too much to hope that from this great gathering of science will go 
forth a new message of hope to this Empire and to a world distracted and 
labouring in unprecedented troubles? Science has come to represent 
the growing point of the human advance. It stands for the new forces 
which are reshaping this world of ours. It faces the future with a bold 
and confident spirit. It has an invincible faith in truth at all costs ; and 
in that faith it is embarked on the endless adventure which carries the 
future of the human race. May its confident spirit and sublime faith 
bring new inspiration to the peoples, and give them courage and strength 
for the grave tasks ahead.’ 
