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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 872 



selected from his ample scientific wardrobe 

 the costume of a geometer, and left his as- 

 tronomical dress at home. A great man 

 whose death was announced almost as I was 

 writing these words, Dr. Johnstone Stoney, 

 spoke (in 1879 at Sheffield) of the valuable 

 training afforded by the study of mechan- 

 ics and of chemistry, with that keen insight 

 which made him so valuable a member of 

 our section. Other presidents whom we 

 have been glad to welcome as astronomers 

 at certain times and seasons did not choose 

 the occasion of their presidency for any 

 very definite manifestation of astronomical 

 sympathy. 



The addresses of Sir George Darwin ('in 

 1886) and of Professor Love (in 1907) on 

 the past history of our earth certainly have 

 an astronomical bearing, but if we distin- 

 guish between the classical astronomy and 

 its modern expansions they would be as- 

 signed to the latter rather than to the 

 former ; and so do the few astronomical al- 

 lusions in Professor Schuster's address at 

 Edinburgh in 1892. Even if we include, in- 

 stead of excluding, all doubtful cases, there 

 will still appear a curious neglect of astron- 

 omy by Section A in the last half century, 

 all the more curious when it is remarked 

 that the neglect does not extend to the as- 

 sociation itself, seeing that there have been 

 three astronomical presidents of the asso- 

 ciation who had not been previously chosen 

 to fill this chair. The neglect is not con- 

 fined to astronomy, but extends, as some of 

 us recently pointed out, to the other sciences 

 of observation; and we thought that, as a 

 corollary, it would be better for the section 

 to divide, in order that these sciences might 

 not continue the struggle for existence in 

 an atmosphere to which they were appar- 

 ently ill-suited. But the section decided 

 against the suggestion, and I have no in- 

 tention of appealing against the decision. 

 This explicit statement will, I trust, suffice 



to prevent misunderstanding if I proceed 

 to examine the possible causes of neglect — ■ 

 for I can not but regard the record as sig- 

 nificant of some cause which it will be well 

 to recognize even if we can not remove it. 

 Personally I think the cause is not far to 

 seek, and my hope is to make it manifest; 

 but as the statement of it involves some- 

 thing in the nature of an accusation, I will 

 beg leave to make it as gently as possible 

 by using the words of others, especially of 

 those against whom the mild accusation is 

 to be made. 



Let me begin by quoting from the admir- 

 able address — none the less admirable be- 

 cause it was only one quarter of the length 

 to which we have become accustomed — de- 

 livered by my late Oxford colleague, the 

 Rev. Bartholomew Price, at Oxford in 

 1860, wherein he referred to the constitu- 

 tion of this section as follows : 



The area of scientific research which this sec- 

 tion covers is very large, larger perhaps than that 

 of any other; and its subjects vary so much that 

 while to some of those who frequent this room 

 certain papers may appear dull, yet to others they 

 will be full of interest. Some of them possess, 

 probably in the highest degree attainable by the 

 human intellect, the characteristics of perfect and 

 necessary science; while others are at present little 

 more than a conglomeration of observations, made 

 indeed with infinite skill and perseverance, and of 

 the greatest value: capable probably in time of 

 greater perfection, nay, perhaps of the most per- 

 fect forms, but as yet in their infancy, scarcely 

 indicating the process by which that maturity will 

 be arrived at and containing hardly the barest 

 outline of their ultimate laws. 



A little later in the address Professor 

 Price made it quite clear which were the 

 sciences "in their infancy." 



And finally we come to the facts of meteorology 

 and its kindred subjects, many of which are 

 scarcely yet brought within any law at all. 



There is here much that will command 

 ready and universal assent ; but is there not 

 also a rather unnecessary social scale 1 The 



