398 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 10S2 



across, and not along, the separating line of 

 professions. 



Were it otherwise, the British Associa- 

 tion could not perform one of its most im- 

 portant functions — a function not, indeed, 

 originally contemplated, but resulting in- 

 directly from the wise and democratic pro- 

 visions in its constitution, which enabled it 

 to adapt itself to the changing needs of the 

 time. Our founders primarily considered 

 the interests of scientific men ; their outlook 

 was restricted and exclusive, both as re- 

 gards range of subject and membership. 

 In the words of Sir David Brewster, who 

 gave the first impulse to its formation, it 

 was to be "an Association of our nobility, 

 clergy, gentry and philosophers." 



The meetings were intended to promote 

 personal intercourse, to organize research, 

 to advocate reform of the laws hindering 

 research, and to improve the status of sci- 

 entific men. The right of membership was 

 confined to those who already belonged to 

 some learned society, and William Whewell, 

 one of the principal supporters of the move- 

 ment, even suggested that only authors of 

 memoirs published by a learned society 

 should be admitted.^ He emphasized this 

 proposal by the recommendation^ "in some 

 way to avoid the crowd of lay members 

 whose names stand on the List of the Royal 

 Society. ' ' The reform of the Patent Laws 

 and the introduction of an International 

 Copyright were suggested as subjects suit- 

 able for discussion, not apparently from 

 the point of view of general advantage, but 

 merely in the interests of one section of the 

 community. 



Whatever the objects of the founders of 

 the association may have been, it is obvious 



2 others were allowed to join on reeommenda- 

 tion by the General Committee. It was only in 

 1906 that this restriction, which had become obso- 

 lete, was removed. 



3 Whewell 's "Writings and Letters," Vol. II., 

 p. 128. 



that questions of public importance could 

 not be permanently excluded from meet- 

 ings the success of which depended on the 

 interest stimulated in the community. The 

 statistical section, which owed its origin to 

 the visit, at the first Oxford meeting 

 (1836), of Quetelet, the Belgian astron- 

 omer and economist, was the first to assert 

 itself by engaging in a discussion of the 

 Poor Laws. Whewell deeply resented this 

 violation of academic neutrality: "it was 

 impossible," he wrote, "to listen to the 

 Proceedings of the Statistical Section on 

 Friday without perceiving that they in- 

 volved exactly what it was most necessary 

 and most desired to exclude from our Pro- 

 ceedings,"* and again: "Who would pro- 

 pose ( I put it to Chalmers, and he allowed 

 the proposal to be intolerable) an ambula- 

 tory body, composed partly of men of repu- 

 tation and partly of a miscellaneous crowd, 

 to go round year by year from town to 

 town and at each place to discuss the most 

 inflammatory and agitating questions of the 

 dayr' = 



Fortunately for our association, this nar- 

 row-minded attitude did not prevail, and 

 our records show that while not avoiding 

 controversial and even inflammatory sub- 

 jects, we have been able to exercise a pow- 

 erful influence on the progress of science. 

 The establishment of electric units, univer- 

 sally accepted throughout the world, origi- 

 nated in the work of one of our committees ; 

 the efforts which led to the foundation of 

 the National Physical Laboratory, one of 

 the most efficient and beneficial organiza- 

 tions in the country, received its first im- 

 pulses from us ; and the organization of the 

 first world service for the systematic investi- 

 gation of earth tremors was established by 



iLoc. cit., p. 289. 



5 It is much to be desired that the documents re- 

 lating to the early history of the British Associa- 

 tion should be published in a collected form. 



