c.xlvi Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N S. ; XIII, 



notes, while others, although valuable contributions to science, 

 ;vre of immediate interest to very few. 



„ r ii, invidious or otherwise, 



in this respect with the British Association, but should like to 



point out that from its foundation onwards some of the most 



important work of that body is to be found in the " Reports on 



the State of Science." The Board of Scientific Advice in India 



has. it is true, for several years published an Annual Report. 



and in some subjects this gives a very fair idea of the progress 



during the year, but in others it is little more than an extract 



from some administration report, and there seems to be no 



attempt at co-ordination nor any endeavour to formulate deside- 

 rata. 



In these days of increasing specialization great effort ought 

 to be made by those working at one subject to get some notion 

 of the progress in others. To make one or two suggestions, 

 there might be some greater effort at combined meetings to 

 deal with subjects in which all or most scientific men must take 

 some interest; there might be permanent committees dealing 

 with specific problems, and the President of each Section, if you 

 must have Sections, might endeavour to review recent work in 

 his subject. This latter is indeed frequently done, but as these 

 addresses are usually all delivered at the same hour they are 

 for the most part listened to onlv by those who best know be- 

 forehand what that work has been. 



The other object which the British Association sets before 

 itself, viz. to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate 

 science in different parts of the British Empire with one another 

 and with foreign philosophers, has always seemed to me, even 

 taken alone, to justify the annual meeting ; but here again the 

 object would be more fully attained were something arranged 

 other than that the agriculturalists should shut themselves up 

 in one room, the chemists in another while the devotees of 

 Natural Science segregate themselves in various ways and pay 

 very scant attention even to one another. I can' quite sym- 

 pathise with the botanist failing to appreciate the beauty of a 

 paper "Ona Cubic Surface referred to a Pentad of Co-tangen- 

 tial Points," or the chemist being somewhat bored bv a dis- 

 quisition "On the Aberrant Form of the Sacrum connected 

 with IS. aegele's Obliquely Contracted Pelvis," but is an Associa- 

 tion or Congress with its rare opportunity of meeting a number 

 ottet low-workers in science, albeit in other branches, a suit- 

 able occasion for such papers ? 



Should not some attempt be made throughout the meeting 

 to deal with subjects intelligible to all students of science 

 alike? There must be something in the complaint recent! 

 made by Prof. Armstrong that a science nowadays ma 

 develop a special language threatening to estrange the usei 

 altogether from common knowledge and sympathy, and some 



