October 11, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



469 



destination. In the gun, by means of 

 electrical contacts arranged in the bore, a 

 time-curve of the passage of the shot can 

 be determined. From this the mathema- 

 tician constructs the velocity-curve, and 

 from this again the pressures producing the 

 velocity are estimated and used to check 

 the same indications obtained by other 

 means. Electricity and photography have 

 been laid under contribution for obtaining 

 records of the flight of projectiles and the 

 effects of explosions at the moment of their 

 occurrence. Many of you will recollect Mr. 

 Vernon Boys's marvelous photographs show- 

 ing the progress of the shot driving before 

 it waves of air in its course. The readiness 

 with which electrical energy can be con- 

 verted into heat or light has been taken 

 advantage of for the firing of guns, which 

 in their turn can, by the same agency, be 

 laid on the object by means of range finders 

 placed at a distance and in advantageous 

 and safe positions; while the electric light 

 is utilized to illumine the sights at night, as 

 well as to search out the objects of attack. 

 The advances in engineering which have 

 produced the steam engine, the railway, 

 the telegraph, as well as our engines of war, 

 may be said to be the result of commercial 

 enterprise rendered possible only by the 

 advances which have taken place in the 

 several branches of science since 1831. 

 Having regard to the intimate relations 

 which the several sciences bear to each 

 other, it is abundantly clear that much of 

 this progi-ess could not have taken place in 

 the past, nor could further progress take 

 place in the future, without intercommuni- 

 cation between the students of different 

 branches of science. The founders of the 

 British Association based its claims to utility 

 upon the power it afforded for this inter- 

 communication. Mr. Vernon Harcourt 

 (the uncle of your present General Secre- 

 tary), in the address he delivered in 1832, 

 said: " How feeble is man for any purpose 



when he stands alone — how strong when 

 united with other men! It may be true 

 that the greatest philosophical works have 

 been achieved in privacy, but it is no less 

 trae that these works would never have 

 been accomplished had the authors not 

 mingled with men of corresponding pursuits, 

 and from the commerce of ideas often gath- 

 ei'ed germs of apparently isolated discov- 

 eries, and without such material aid would 

 seldom have carried their investigations to 

 a valuable conclusion." 



I claim for the British Association that 

 it has fulfilled the objects of its founders, 

 that it has had a large share in promoting 

 intercommunication and combination. Our 

 meetings have been successful because they 

 have maintained the true pi'inciples of 

 scientific investigation. We have been 

 able to secure the continued presence and 

 concurrence of the master spirits of science. 

 They have been willing to sacrifice their 

 leisure, and to promote the welfare of the 

 Association, because the meetings have 

 afforded them the means of advancing the 

 sciences to which they are attached. 



The Association has, moreover, justified 

 the views of its founders in promoting in- 

 tercourse between the pursuers of science, 

 both at home and abroad, in a manner which 

 is afforded bj' no other agency. The weekly 

 and sessional reunions of the Royal Society, 

 and the annual soirees of other scientific 

 societies, promote this intercourse to some 

 extent, but the British Association presents 

 to the young student during its week of 

 meetings easy and continuous social oppor- 

 tunities for making the acquaintance of 

 leaders in science, and thereby obtaining 

 their directing influence. It thus en- 

 courages, in the first place, opportunities of 

 combination, but, what is equally impor- 

 tant, it gives at the same time material as- 

 sistance to the investigators whom it thus 

 brings together. The reports on the state 

 of science at the present time, as they ap- 



