SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



4 1 



who have a prescriptive right and a splendid 

 vantage ground for teaching morality and religion, 

 deny in these respects what the men of science 

 affirm, and affirm what they deny, or else they 

 ignore the matter, or else they are ignorant of the 

 points in dispute and take no interest in them. 

 But the fact is that no one can stop the revolution 

 of the earth by simply saying that it does not 

 move, and no teacher can influence his disciples 

 if in his argument he presupposes as accepted and 

 impregnable truth what they rightly or wrongly 

 regard as incredible legends. 



" If opposition has promoted the knowledge 

 of nature, much more must the innumerable 

 societies established expressly for its promotion 

 have been efficacious. The growing appreciation 

 of science led to their being founded. Their 

 foundation has led to an ever-extending growth in 

 the appreciation of science. Much the same may 

 be said of periodical scientific literature, although 

 that is a subject almost too mountainous, too 

 labyrinthine, to enter upon just now. For my 

 immediate purpose it may suffice to speak of the 

 British Association. It was founded, as most of 

 you know, in 1S31. It is a missionary organization, 

 a peripatetic school of philosophers. While most 

 societies are like ordinary vegetables, rooted in the 

 soil, this has the superior characteristic of an 

 animal, as being capable of free movement. It can 

 flit from Aberdeen to Oxford, from Glasgow to 

 Plymouth, and from Plymouth to Dublin. It can 

 wing its way from Liverpool to Toronto, from 

 Toronto to Bristol, and then, leaving "The Queen 

 of the West," pitch its camp, as we confidently 

 expect, the year after next, in Dover. It has 

 brought the wonders and surprises of advancing 

 knowledge to men's own doors. It beats the drum 

 outside their windows, so that they cannot 

 altogether shut their ears to the music. The 

 reception of it entails upon the hospitable town an 

 astonishing amount of trouble and expense. 

 Nevertheless, the welcome it receives is not only 

 here extremely cordial, but the pleasant 

 sight is witnessed of rival towns or cities competing 

 for the honour of giving it entertainment. What 

 thK parent association does on an Imperial scale, 

 our Union hopes to do, for a limited area, not by 

 inopportune mimicry, but by judicious following of 

 a great example. 



"That the Briti-h Association is broken up into 

 sections, designated by the letters of the alphabet, 

 . to K, is due to the enormous extension of 

 modern science, which makes division of labour a 

 matter not of choice but of necessity. Each section 

 is an association in itself. Each is fully, and some- 

 times more than fully, occupied with its committees 

 and reports, and papers and discussions and recom- 

 mendations Our own energetic honorary secretary, 

 has printed on the back of your tickets 

 a list of thirteen departments of scientific investiga- 

 tion in which he invites you to take an active part 

 for the benefit of our Union and Congress He 

 does at that the list is exhaustive, and 



in fact he does not mention either bryology, or 

 embryology, or bryozoology, he has omitted 



and mala^ 

 has steered dear of 1 and phj 



and M ograpby, and phyto- 



rystallogra] .othing 



about plankton, or nekton, or benthos: and he 



all the rest as ' allien 1 This al ■ 



patent, tha - irth, bnl no 



one can any longer ho; pecfalisl in all of 



them or in many. To know everything about 

 something, or something about everything, is be- 

 coming increasingly difficult. 



" More I shall forbear to tell you anent the 

 wisdom and the profit of all that we wish to do 

 and to do not ; remembering how even the eager 

 and enquiring Queen of Sheba, on her visit to the 

 Hebrew Linnseus, was so tired out with all that 

 she heard and saw that there was no more spirit 

 in her. Only to timid and hesitating beginners I 

 may venture to say one concluding word. Believe 

 me, that ever as you pursue your path through 

 the fairyland of science and become more and 

 more acquainted with the riches and splendour of 

 the scene, you will more and more be convinced 

 that the fame of it has not exceeded the reality, 

 that at your outsetting the half was not told you." 



The Rev. J. Scargill, B.A., of the Bromley 

 Society, read a paper upon the "Preservation of 

 Local Fauna and Flora." It contained a summary 

 of the means now obtaining, which tended to their 

 destruction, and Mr. A. Rose followed with 

 "Suggestions for protection against the wasteful 

 collection of specimens," and urged the various 

 societies of the Union to assist in its discourage- 

 ment. An important and useful discussion was 

 inaugurated by Mr. Atwood, on " How can the 

 Technical Education Grant assist Local Societies ? ' ' 

 In his paper Mr. Atwood drew attention to the 

 advantage many local and more or less struggling 

 scientific societies would gain if a meeting-place 

 free of rent could be given in some of the numerous 

 technical educational institutions which were 

 being now founded with public money, under the 

 auspices of County Councils. He instanced the 

 case of his own society and 



" other unaided organizations, which had, in the 

 survival of the fittest, stimulated a taste for intellec- 

 tual enjoyment. Many of these bodies would have 

 survived or done a greater work if they had not 

 been so hampered by want of funds, in which 

 the rent of premises was always the most 

 serious item. Sometimes local men of means 

 would foster the institution, but more often it 

 suffered from inanition. Where these societies 

 existed the technical fund was usually in full 

 force, helping technical institutions which were 

 springing up. The scientific societies cast longing 

 eyes that it might catch some of the crumbs 

 which fell from the public feast of knowledge. 

 But they were told that private societies could 

 not benefit from public funds. They might 

 arrange for payment and so find a home in a 

 public library, which otherwise would be beyond 

 them. But, alas, the Kent County Council heard 

 of the arrangement and put its foot down on it, and 

 the poor natural history society was frustrated in 

 finding a local habitation even when it had the 

 sympathy of the District Council. Surely the 

 local authority could better judge than the County 

 Executive whether the society was worthy of 

 lupporl "i should be hastened toward thai bourne 



I v ever returned. I le could find 

 nothing in the Btatute to show that it was in 

 Infringement be local society belter, but if 



1 n "i 1 in 1 ount) ' 1 '"hi 11 found in 



- 1 v/liai othei a 1 ould be n ipectfully 



I hould l»: amendi d 'i be - bool 

 si building in ■ bii b the society might 



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