372 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT GLASGOW. 



[1855. 



Edinburgh a high place indeed among the benefactors of man- 

 kind. Chloroform as a mere chemical composition had indeed 

 been known before, and had been made the subject of elaborate 

 research by the distinguished French chemist, M. Dumas, 

 whom we have here the honour of receiving as a guest. But 

 the discovery of its application is not the less a triumph of 

 science, and of the best and highest scientific faculties. Sel- 

 dom indeed has that disposition of mind which is ever ready 

 to receive a chance suggestion, and to pursue it believing what 

 great things we have yet to learn, been crowned with a more 

 brilliant and direct reward. 



It marks the growing sense entertained of the value of Sta- 

 tistical research, that, during the late session of Parliament, a 

 committee of the House of Lords sat for a considerable time 

 on the best means of securing a complete system of Agricultu- 

 ral Eeturns. We owe much in this matter to the exertions of 

 the Highland Society of Scotland, and, as has been specially 

 recorded by the committee, to the zeal and activity of their 

 able secretary, Mr. Hall Maxwell. We owe not less, also, to 

 the high intelligence of the farmers of Scotland generally, who 

 have rendered every assistance in their power, and that with a 

 willingness which can only arise from an enlightened apprecia- 

 tion of the great object to be gained by the inquiry. 



No one has rendered more important service to Statistical 

 science, in one of its most interesting departments, than the 

 able Chamberlain of this city. Dr. Strang. His periodical Re- 

 ports on the Growth and Progress of Glasgow are among the 

 most curious and useful records of the kind which have been 

 published in any part of the United Kingdom. I need hardly 

 say that they supply materials for much reflection on many 

 questions connected with the social welfare of the people. I 

 believe Dr. Strang has lately visited Paris, with a view to com- 

 municate to this Meeting of the Association various facts con- 

 nected with the great improvements which are in the course 

 of progress in that city. Should his investigations cast any 

 light on the best means of improving the dwellings of the la- 

 bouring classes in the great centres of population, and on the 

 possibility of doing so on a large scale, by public authority, he 

 will have rendered no small service to his country in a matter 

 of vital interest and of much diiEculty. 



Closely connected with the subject of Statistics, as applied 

 to Agricultural returns, I am happy to say that, mainly owing 

 to the exertions of Sir J. Forbes of Fettercairn, and of Mr. 

 Milne Home, a Meteorological Society for Scotland has been 

 established, warmly seconded by the Highland Society. The 

 wonderful results on a great scale which have been obtained 

 in this department of science by Lieut. Maury, of the United 

 States, give us ground to hope that even on the small areas of 

 individual countries, where of course, from the crossing of lo- 

 cal influences, the general result is infinitely complicated, some 

 approach may be made towards ascertaining the laws which re- 

 gulate the seasons. 



The_ admirable agency which is now aff'orded by the Kew 

 Committee of this Association, for the verification of instru- 

 ments, and by the new meteorological department of the Board 

 of Trade under Capt. Fitz-Roy, for the deduction of local ob- 

 servations, will, I trust, be taken advantage of by the new 

 Scottish Society. 1 cannot help congratulating the Association 

 on the position which has been secured by science in connexion 

 with both of these establishments. The thanks of the com- 

 mercial as well as of the scientific world are due to Colonel 

 Sabine and the other members of the Kew Committee, whose 

 assistance is now highly appreciated by practical men, and 

 eagerly sought for by the best instrument- makers ; whilst Capt. 



Fitz Roy's ofiice and duties are in themselves an acknowledg- 

 ment of no small importance of the public value of systematic 

 observation. 



The increasing employment of iron in ship-building has 

 brought into corresponding notice the uncertainty which 

 attends the action of the compass on board vessels of that con- 

 struction. This important and intricate subject has been 

 treated of by Mr. Archibald Smith, of Jordan Hill, with all 

 the resources of his high mathematical and scientific attain- 

 ments, in publications which have appeared under the sanction 

 and with the recommendation of the Admiralty. It will not 

 fail to interest this great commercial city, whose freights are 

 on every sea, that this question was taken up at the last Liver- 

 pool Meeting by Dr. Scoresby, that it has continued to occupy 

 his close attention, and that he intends to communicate to 

 this Meeting of the Association some of the valuable results of 

 his investigation. 



Feeling deeply, as I do, my own inability to give anything 

 like an adequate sketch — even in outline — of the progress of 

 science during the last few years, I remember at the same time 

 with some satisfaction, that it is less the business of this Asso- 

 ciation to boast of the achievements which have already been 

 effected, than to devise means of facilitating those which are 

 yet to come. You have appointed a Parliamentary Committee 

 for the consideration of one important branch of this inquiry. 

 We shall doubtless hear from my noble friend Lord Wrottesley 

 those recommendations which have been the result of its recent 

 labours, and which will be found to owe much to his enlighten- 

 ed zeal, to his great knowledge and his sound judgment. In 

 the mean time, I trust I may be allowed to make a few general 

 observations on what appear to me to be some of the best means 

 of promoting in this country the advancement of physical 

 science. 



It will readily be understood that, in referring for a moment 

 here to the aid which may be afforded by the State to the ad- 

 vancement of science, I divest myself entirely of any ofBcial 

 character other than that which belongs to me as your President, 

 and that I seek to give expression to my own opinions only. 



I am not one of those who are disposed to look to public 

 authority as the primary or the best supporter of abstract 

 science. In the main it must depend for its advancement on 

 its own inexhaustible attractions, — on the delight which it 

 affords us to study the constitution of the world around us, and 

 to endeavour to understand, though it be but darkly, how the 

 rein of its government are held. Nor am I disposed to indulge 

 in any complaint on a matter which has lately attracted some 

 attention among scientific men. In a great manufacturing 

 country like ours, the disposition of whose people is eminently 

 practical, it is perfectly natural that greater attention should be 

 bestowed on the arts than on the abstract sciences. This, in- 

 deed, is but adhering to what has been hitherto, at least, the 

 natural historical order of precedence ; for it is a just observa- 

 tion of Prof. Whewell, in his lecture " On the Results of the 

 Great Exhibition of 1851," that practice has generally gone 

 before theory — results have been arrived at, before the laws on 

 which they depend have been defined or understood. Art, in 

 short, has preceded Science. But it is equally important to 

 observe, that in recent times this order has been in numberless 

 instances reversed. Abstract science has gone ahead of the 

 arts, and the conduct of the workshop is now perpetually re- 

 ceiving its direction from the experiments of the laboratory. 

 Perhaps the most wonderful discovery of modern days- — that 

 of the Electric Telegraph— was thought out and perfected, so 

 far as its principle was concerned, in the closet and the lecture- 



