744 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 830 



both our science and our section if we 

 do so. 



It was not my intention in this address 

 to raise tlie question of what is geography, 

 but various circumstances make it desir- 

 able to say a few words upon it. We are 

 all the victims of the geographical teach- 

 ing of our youth, and it is easy to under- 

 stand how those who have retained un- 

 changed the conceptions of geography they 

 gained at school many years ago cavil at 

 the recognition of geography as a branch 

 of science. Moreover the geography of the 

 schools still colors the conceptions of some 

 geographers who have nevertheless done 

 much to make school geography scientific 

 and educational. Many definitions of 

 geography are consequently too much 

 limited by the arbitrary but traditional 

 division of school subjects. In schools tra- 

 dition and practical convenience have on 

 the whole rightly determined the scope of 

 the different subjects. Geography in 

 schools is best defined as the study of the 

 earth as the home of man ; its limits should 

 not be too closely scrutinized, and it should 

 be used freely as a coordinating subject. 



The present division into sections of the 

 British association is also largely a matter 

 of practical convenience, but we are told 

 that the present illogical arrangement of 

 sections distresses some minds. No doubt 

 there are some curious anomalies. The 

 most glaring, perhaps, is that of combining 

 mathematics with physics — as if mathe- 

 matical methods were used in no other 

 subjects. 



There is a universal tendency to sub- 

 di^dsion and an ever-increasing specialism, 

 but there is also an ever-growing interde- 

 pendence of different parts of science 

 which the British Association is unques- 

 tionably bound to take into account. At 

 present this is chiefly done by joint meet- 

 ings of sections, a wise course, of which 



this section has been one of the chief pro- 

 moters. It is possible that some more sys- 

 tematic grouping of sections might be weU 

 advised, but such a reform should be sys- 

 tematic and not piecemeal. It is one which 

 raises the whole question of the classifica- 

 tion of knowledge. This is so vast a prob- 

 lem and one on which such divergent 

 opinions are held that I must apologize for 

 venturing to put forward some tentative 

 suggestions. 



It might be found desirable to take as 

 primary divisions the mathematical, phys- 

 ical, biological, anthropological and geo- 

 graphical groups. Statistics might be re- 

 garded as a subdi\dsion of mathematics or 

 as a field common to mathematics and any 

 of the other groups. In the second might 

 be the subdivisions physics and chemistry. 

 Each would devote a certain proportion of 

 time to its applied aspects — or there might 

 be subsections on physics, which would in- 

 clude engineering and applied chemistry. 

 In the biological group there would be 

 botany, zoology, in both cases including 

 paleontology and embryology, and applied 

 biology, which would be dealt with in one 

 or other of the ways I have suggested, and 

 would include agriculture, fisheries, etc. 

 (Medicine we leave out at present.) In the 

 psychological group there would be a new 

 section on psychology, with the education 

 section as the practical appendage. Mathe- 

 matical application would be considered in 

 each of the other sections which use mathe- 

 matical notations. In the anthropological 

 group there would be the present anthro- 

 pology and theoretical economics with ap- 

 plied economics and administration. In 

 the geographical group there would be 

 geography and geology, the practical ap- 

 plications of geography being considered 

 in joint meetings, or subsections — for in- 

 stance, geography and phj'-sics for ques- 

 tions of atmospheric and oceanic circula- 



