December 30, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



643 



British Association and the holding of two 

 extra meetings by the American Association. 



It was formerly the custom in the British 

 Association to review the progress of science 

 each year, and this was usually done in a way 

 in the address of the president. As time went 

 on and science became very intricate and 

 highly specialized in its different parts, the 

 individual, no matter how great his ability and 

 his general knowledge, found himself less and 

 less able to cover the whole field, and so the 

 character of the presidential addresses became 

 diversified. In a measure the same trend has 

 occurred in America. But the British, more 

 conservative than we are over here, or perhaps 

 having the habit of electing broader men to the 

 presidency, have been slower in breaking away 

 from custom, and of their later addresses on 

 the other side seven of the twenty-four have 

 been devoted to a review of the progress of 

 science, while in America only two out of 

 twenty-seven have followed this old and admir- 

 able plan. But the diversity in the other ad- 

 dresses has been almost as great with the 

 British as with the Americans. On topics con- 

 nected with physics, there have been 3 with the 

 British and 3 with the Americans ; with anthro- 

 pology, 2 with the British and 2 with the Amer- 

 icans; in astronomy, 1 with the British and 3 

 with the Americans; botany, 1 British and 2 

 American; medical science, 2 British and 2 

 American; geology, 1 British and 2 Ameri- 

 can; chemistry, 1 British and 2 American; 

 biology, 2 British and 3 American ; economics, 

 2 American; engineering, 1 British; and the 

 remaining addresses can not be classified. 



What a wealth of good things can be found 

 in these addresses ! Wlio can forget Sir Joseph 

 Lister's address on " The Interdependence of 

 Science and the Healing Art " delivered at 

 Liverpool, 1896, and the modest way (char- 

 acteristic of the man) in which he broke his 

 long silence concerning his own great part in 

 the discoveries that revolutionized the surgical 

 practise of the world ? He said, 



Pasteur 's labors on fermentation have had a very 

 important influence upon surgery. I have been 

 often asked to speak on my sliare in. this matter be- 

 fore a public audience, but I have hitherto refused 



to do so, partly because the details are so entirely 

 technical, but chiefly because I have felt an invin- 

 cible repugnance to what might seem to savor of 

 self-advertisement. The latter objection now no 

 longer exists, since advancing years have indicated 

 that it is right for me to leave to younger men the 

 practise of my dearly loved profession. And it will 

 perhaps be expected that, if I can make myself in- 

 telligible, I should say something upon the subject 

 on the present occasion. 



Wlio of us Americans who heard it can for- 

 get the address of Sir John Evans at the 

 Toronto meeting in 1897, in which the follow- 

 ing words were used, 



Our gathering this year presents a feature of en- 

 tire novelty and extreme interest, inasmuch as the 

 sister Association of tihe United States of America 

 — still mourning the loss of her illustrious Presi- 

 dent, Professor Cope — and some other learned so- 

 cieties, have made special arrangements to allow of 

 their members coming here to join us. I need 

 hardly say how welcome their presence is, nor how 

 gladly we look forward to their taking part in 

 our discussions, and aiding us by interchange of 

 thought. To such a meeting the term ' ' interna- 

 tional " seems almost misapplied. It may rather 

 be described as a family gathering, in which our 

 relatives more or less distant in blood, but still in- 

 timately connected with us by language, literatiire, 

 and habits of thought, have spontaneously arranged 

 to take part. 



The domain of science is no doubt one in which 

 the various nations of the civilized world meet upon 

 equal terms, and for which no other passport is re- 

 quired than some evidence of having striven to- 

 wards the advancement of natural knowledge. Here, 

 on the frontier between the two great English- 

 speaking nations of the world, who is there that 

 does not inwardly feel that anything which con- 

 duces to an intimacy between the representatives of 

 two countries, both of them actively engaged in the 

 pursuit of science, may also, through such an inti- 

 macy, react on the aSaixs of daily life, and aid in 

 preserving those cordial relations that have now for 

 so many years existed between the great American 

 Eepublic and the British Islands, with which her 

 early foundations are indissolubly connected? 



How well the following years have carried 

 forward this idea of Sir John Evans, not only 

 in the domain of science but in the vital affairs 

 of national relations, was amply shown in Eng- 

 land's influential moral support of the United 



