12 



of scientific knowledge to the British people as a nation of sailors, the Associa- 

 tion voted in all in its earlier years upwards of £1,600 for the study and im- 

 provement of the forms of vessels for successful navigation. £2,135 was spent 

 in thirteen years for the study of problems of weather so important to a seafaring 

 population. Grants were made for investigating earthquakes, and the land and 

 sea level. No less than £1,500 was voted for mapping the stars, and for 

 assistance to electrical and magnetic research. No one can forget the valuable 

 service rendered by the British Association in gaining consent to the system of 

 measuring known as the C.G.S. (i.e., Centimeter — Gramme — Second) units. 

 The publications of the Association have gone all over the world and have 

 carried information by the papers being printed in full, in so far as they 

 proved valuable. The scientist needs stimulation in the line of the direction 

 of his investigation, in the appliances and devices that can be used, in the ac- 

 counts of the failures or achievements of others, and in the thought of co-opera- 

 tion from his knowing that others like himself are following certain lines of 

 search. 



THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM. 



Sometimes with grants, but oftener without them, committees of kindred 

 spirits are appointed in the several departmnts for investigating and reporting 

 on certain questions of interest. By this method a definite direction is given to 

 the specialists in their work, and many reports really remarkable have been given 

 in during the three-quarters of a century of the existence of the Association. 



The subjects worked out by committees may be seen by a selection from 

 the year in which the Association met in Montreal. Some of the subjects con- 

 sidered were: (1) Meteoric dust; (2) Chemical Nomenclature; (3) Move- 

 ment of Underground Waters; (4) National Geological Surveys of Europe; 

 (5) Rate of Erosion on Sea Coasts; (6) Earthquake Phenomena; (7) Mi- 

 gratory Birds at Light-Houses and Light- Vessels ; (8) Promoting Survey of 

 Eastern Palestine; (9) Science in Elementary Schools; (10) Facial Charac- 

 ters of Races of the British Isles; (11) Spectrum Analysis; (12) Archaean 

 Rocks of Great Britain; (13) Theory of the Steam Engine; (14) Coast 

 Signals. 



From these few examples, taken from a single year, may be seen the ex- 

 ceeding important character of the work of the Association. 



COMING TO CANADA. 



At its May meeting at Ottawa in 1 895 the Royal Society in Canada, which 

 had been instrumental in inducing the British Association to visit Canada in 

 1884 and 1897, the meeting in the former year having been in Montreal and 



