OclOBKE 3, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



533 



independence ; if to aid without taking pos- 

 session would accord with the policy of the 

 Carnegie Institution as well as with the 

 preference of the laboratory people; if 

 this would better meet the expectations of 

 men of science generally, then the trust 

 we have placed in the Carnegie trustees 

 will surely find its best justification in the 

 suggested modification of their proposition 

 to us. 



C. 0. Whitman. 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 

 VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE* 



I. 



The members of an association whose 

 studies involve perpetual contemi)lation of 

 settled law and ordered evolution, whose 

 objects are to seek patiently for the truth 

 of things and to extend the dominion of 

 man over the forces of nature, are even 

 more deeply pledged than other men to 

 loyalty to the Crown and the Constitution 

 which procure for them the essential con- 

 ditions of calm security and social stabil- 

 ity. I am confident that I express the sen- 

 timents of all now before me when I say 

 that to our loyal respect for his high office 

 we add a warmer feeling of loyalty and 

 attachment to the person of our Gracious 

 Sovereign. It is the peculiar felicity of 

 the British Association that, since its foun- 

 dation seventy-one years ago, it has always 

 been easy and natural to cherish both these 

 sentiments, which indeed can never be dis- 

 sociated \vithout peril. At this, our second 

 meeting held under the present reign, these 

 sentiments are realized all the more vivid- 

 ly, because, in common with the whole em- 

 pire, we have recently passed through a 

 period of acute apprehension, followed by 

 the uplifting of a national deliverance. 

 ■ The splendid and imposing coronation cere- 

 * Given on September 10, at the Belfast meet- 

 ing. 



mony which took place just a month ago 

 was rendered doubly impressive both for 

 the King and his people by the universal 

 consciousness that it was also a service of 

 thanksgiving for escape from imminent 

 peril. In oft'ering to His Majesty our most 

 hearty congratulations upon his singularly 

 rapid recovery from a dangerous illness, 

 we rejoice to think that the nation has re- 

 ceived gratifying evidence of the vigor of 

 his constitution, and may, with confidence 

 more assured than before, pray that he 

 may have length of happy and prosperous 

 days. No one in his wide dominions is 

 more competent than the King to realize 

 how much he owes, not only to the skill of 

 his surgeons, but also to the equipment 

 which has been placed in their hands as the 

 combined result of scientific investigation 

 in many and diverse directions. He has 

 already displaced a profound and saga- 

 cious interest in the discovery of methods 

 for dealing with some of the most intracta- 

 ble maladies that still baffle scientific pene- 

 tration ; nor can we doubt that this interest 

 extends to other forms of scientific inves- 

 tigation, more directly connected with the 

 amelioration of the lot of the healthy than 

 with the relief of the sick. Heredity im- 

 poses obligations and also confers aptitude 

 for their discharge. If His Majesty's roy- 

 al mother throughout her long and benefi- 

 cent reign set him a splendid example of 

 devotion to the burdensome labors of State 

 which must necessarily absorb the chief 

 part of his energies, his father no less 

 clearly indicated the great part he may 

 play in the encouragement of science. In- 

 telligent appreciation of scientific work and 

 needs is not less but more necessary in the 

 highest quarters to-day than it was forty- 

 three years ago, when His Royal Highness 

 the Prince Consort brought the matter be- 

 fore this Association in the following mem- 

 orable passage in his Presidential Address : 



