August 26, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



261 



value; the social functions that have been 

 arranged are both numerous and attrac- 

 tive, and show that the association is as- 

 sured of the same generous measure of 

 hospitality and entertainment in Sheffield 

 that it has received elsewhere in its peri- 

 patetic career. 



Sheffield has gone ahead by leaps and 

 bounds since it was last visited by the 

 British Association. In 1879 its popula- 

 tion was about a quarter of a million ; now 

 the population is estimated to be nearly 

 twice as large, and the municipal area is 

 the largest in the kingdom. During the in- 

 terval Sheffield has become a county bor- 

 ough (in 1888), and in 1893 the jubilee of 

 its corporation was made notable by its 

 creation as a city. Five years ago its uni- 

 versity was established by royal charter, 

 the opening ceremony being performed by 

 King Edward VII., who was accompanied 

 by Queen Alexandra. The new university 

 library, the gift of a local benefactor, Mr. 

 "W. Edgar Allen, is just a year old, and was 

 opened by their present majesties, King 

 George and Queen Mary, while still Prince 

 and Princess of Wales. It is interesting to 

 note that Firth College, out of which the 

 university has developed, was established 

 in the year of the association's last visit to 

 Sheffield. The town hall, erected at a cost 

 of £182,000, is only one of many other 

 handsome public buildings which have 

 come into existence in the past thirty years, 

 and have done away with much of the 

 ground for Horace Walpole's reproach 

 that Sheffield was ' ' one of the foulest towns 

 of England in the most charming situa- 

 tion." The city is still, of course, essen- 

 tially a great manufacturing center, and 

 from the picturesque point of view suffers 

 from the defects of its industrial activity; 

 but the proportions of its streets and the 

 character of its building-s have been vastly 

 improved in recent years, and the Sheffield 



of to-day is not behind any of its northern 

 neighbors in respect of municipal enter- 

 prise. And though the modern develop- 

 ment of its iron and steel industries is the 

 most distinguishing feature of the city, 

 Sheffield is not without historical interest. 

 The Cutlers' Company has enjoyed legal 

 recognition for nearly three hundred years, 

 its charter of incorporation dating back to 

 1624, and there is no doubt that it existed 

 long before it was incorporated, just as 

 Sheffield itself was certainly famous in the 

 middle ages for its cutlery — witness "The 

 Canterbury Tales," in which the Reeve 

 says of the Miller in his tale : " A Sheffield 

 thwitel baar he in his hose." 



By the courtesy of the Cutlers' Com- 

 pany the reception-room and administra- 

 tive offices of the British Association dur- 

 ing the forthcoming meeting will be in the 

 Cutlers' Hall; and with the exception of 

 Section I (physiology), which will be lo- 

 cated in the university, all the sections 

 will have rooms within a radius of less than 

 a quarter of a mile from that hall. The 

 Local Arrangements Committee is to be 

 congratulated on having succeeded in ac- 

 commodating the numerous sections within 

 such a short distance of one another, not 

 only because there are many members of 

 the British Association of an eclectic turn 

 of mind, who like to attend the pro- 

 ceedings of more than one section, but be- 

 cause, in continuation and development of 

 a practise which demonstrates the close 

 interrelation of the different branches of 

 science, which has been growing in favor 

 in the British Association in recent years, 

 there are to be a large number of joint 

 meetings of two or more sections for the 

 discussion of questions of common interest. 

 This tendency is deserving of every en- 

 couragement. 



For some time past the council of the 

 British Association has had under con- 



