Sept. 7, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



227 



Bath, Sept. 5. 

 The 58th annual meeting of the British Association opened 

 to-day with the usual meeting of the council at I o'clock, 

 under the presidency of Sir Henry Roscoe. The meeting of 

 the general committee was held at the Guildhall under the 

 presidency of Sir Henry Roscoe. 



The minutes of the Manchester meeting having been read 

 by Mr. Atchison, 



Sir Douglas Galton read the report of the council, which 

 notified the e'ection of a large number of corresponding 

 members and the nomination of Archdeacon Browne as a 

 vice-president of the meeting. The report further stated that 

 invitations for the year 1890 would be presented from Leeds 

 and Cardiff, and from Edinburgh for the year 1891, and con- 

 tinued, 



" The council have received the following report from a com- 

 mittee of the council appointed to consider the question of grants 

 to marine biological stations in this country, together with a letter 

 from Professor E. Ray Lankester, secretary of the Marine Biological 

 Association, suggesting that the British Association should com- 

 plete its donations to the funds of that association so as to make up 

 the sum given to the amount of ^500, thereby securing certain 

 rights : 



"The British Association has up to the present time granted 

 altogether £300 to the Marine Biological Associalion, and by a 

 further grant of £200 the British Associalion would be entitled to 

 nominate a representative on the council of the Marine Biological 

 Association. The committee are of opinion that the council 

 should recommend the general committee to grant the £200, and 

 appoint a member to represent them on the council of the Marine 

 Biological Association. 



" With reference to the grants to marine biological stations 

 generally, the committee are of opinion that in all these cases it is 

 desirable that grants in future should be made to individuals for 

 specific researches rather than for the general maintenance of in- 

 stitutions ; and with reference to the Scottish stations they would 

 further call the attention of the council to the fact that the Scotch 

 Fishery Board has a Parliamentary grant of £2,000 per annum for 

 scientific investigations, the whole of which, it appears from the 

 appropriation accounts, is not at present expended." 



The council, having received the above report, have 

 forwarded it, together with the letter of Professor Ray 

 Lankester, to the committee of Section D. 



In accordance with the regulations, the five retiring members 

 of the council will be Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 

 Professor J. Dewer, F.R.S., Professor W. H. Flower, C.B., 

 Dr. J. H. Gladstone, and Professor H. N. Moseley. The 

 council recommend the re-election of the other ordinary 

 members of council, with the addition of the following 

 gentlemen: — Dr. Gamgee, Dr. A. Geikie, Professor Liveing, 

 Mr. W. H. Preece, and Professor Rucker. 



On the motion of the President the report was adopted. 

 Dr. Williamson read the financial statement, which showed a 

 total income for the year of £8,441. The grants made 

 amounted to ^1,511. The balance at the bank was £239. 

 The investment account showed a total of ,£12,839 I0 s- 5d. 

 The accounts were adopted. Mr. Atchinson presented a list 

 of officers of sections, and the recommendations committee 

 having been appointed, the meeting adjourned till Monday. 



In the evening Professor Sir Henry Roscoe, the retiring 

 president, took the chair in the large drill-hall, and was 

 cordially received. He addressed the assembly as follows : — 



My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — Four-and-tvventy eventful 

 years in the history of science have passed away since the British 

 Association last visited the city of Bath. Those of us who were 

 present here in 1S64 will not soon forget that memorable meeting. It 

 was presided over, as you all will remember, by that veteran geolo- 

 gist, that great forerunner of a new science of life, Sir Charles 

 Lyell, of beloved and venerated memory. Yes, ladies and gentle- 

 men, it was he who prepared the way by his recognition of the true 

 history of our globe for the even more illustrious Darwin. It was 

 he who pointed out that the causes which have modified the earth's 

 crust in the past are for the most part those which are now changing 

 the face of nature. Lyell was a typical example of the expositor of 



nature's most secret processes. His work was that of an investi- 

 gator of science pure and undefiled, and as such his life and labours 

 stand for ever as an example to all those who love science for her 

 own sake. But the far-seeing founders of this our British Associa- 

 tion were as fully alive to the fact as we, in perhaps our more utili- 

 tarian age, can be that, just as man does not live by bread alone, 

 so it is not only by purely scientific discovery that the nations pro- 

 gress or that science advances. They knew as well as we do that 

 to benefit humanity the application of the results of scientific re- 

 search to the great problems of everyday life is a necessity. Hence 

 our founders, while acknowledging that the basis of our Association 

 can only be securely laid upon the principles of pure science in its 

 various branches, recognised the importance of the application of 

 those principles in the establishment of a section which should re- 

 present one of the most remarkable outcomes of the activity and 

 force of the nation — a section of engineering. It is therefore meet 

 and right that, in due proportion, this great department of our 

 scientific edifice, a department which, perhaps, more than any other, 

 has effected a revolution in our .modern social systems, should be 

 represented in our presidential chair. Twenty-four years ago 

 it was pure science that we honoured in Sir Charles Lyell : 

 to-day it is applied science to which we show our respect 

 in the person of Sir Frederick Bramwell. It would ill become 

 me, engaged as I have been in the study of subjects far removed 

 from those which fill the life of an active and successful engineer, 

 to venture on this occasion on a eulogium upon the work of my 

 successor ; still less is it in my mind to draw any comparison as to 

 the relative importance to be attached to the work of the investiga- 

 tor such as Lye'!, and to that of him who applies the researches of 

 others to the immediate wants of mankind. It is enough for me, 

 as I am sure it will be for you, to remember that both classes of 

 men are needed for the due advancement of science, and to rejoice 

 that as in former years the names of Fairbairn, of Armstrong, and 

 of Hawkshaw have adorned our list of Presidents, so in the 

 present instance this branch of science, which represents lines of 

 human activity rendered illustrious by the labours of many great 

 Englishmen, is to-day represented by our eminent President. I 

 have the honour of requesting Sir Frederick Bramwell to take the 

 chair, and to favour us with the Presidential address. 



ADDRESS BY SIR FREDERICK BRAMWELL, D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., M.INST.C.E., PRESIDENT. 



The late Lord Iddesleigh delighted an audience, for a whole even- 

 ing, by an address on "Nothing." Would that I had his talents, 

 and could discourse to you as charmingly as he did to his audience, 

 but I dare not try to talk about " Nothing." I do, however, pro- 

 pose, as one of the two sections of my address, to discourse to you 

 on the importance of the " Next-to-nothing." The other section 

 is far removed from this microscopic quantity, as it will embrace 

 the Eulogv of the Civil Engineer, and will point out the value to 

 science of his works. 



I do not intend to follow any system in dealing with these two 

 sections. I shall not even do as Mr. Dick, in " David Copper- 

 field," did — have two papers, to one of which it was suggested he 

 should confine his memorial and his observations as to King 

 Charles's head. The result is, you will find, that the importance of 

 the next-to-nothing and the laudation of the Civil Engineer will be 

 mixed up in the most illogical and haphazard way, throughout my 

 Address. I will leave to such of you as are of orderly minds the 

 task of rearranging the subjects as you see fit, but I trust — arrange- 

 ment or no arrangement — that by the time I have brought my ad- 

 dress to a conclusion I shall have convinced you that there is no 

 man who more thoroughly appreciates the high importance of the 

 " next-to nothing " than the Civil Engineer of the present day, the 

 object of my eulogy this evening. 



If I may be allowed to express the scheme of this Address in 

 modern musical language, I will say that the "next-to-nothing" 

 "motive " will commonly usher in the "praise-song" of the Civil 

 Engineer, and it seems to me will do this very fitly, for in many 

 cases it is by the patient and discriminating attention paid to the 

 effect of the " next-to-nothing" that the Civil Engineer of the pre- 

 sent day has achieved some of the labours of which I now wish to 

 speak to you. 



An Association for the Advancement of Science is necessarily one 

 of such broad scope in its objects, and is so thoroughly catholic as 

 regards science, that the only possible way in which it can carry out 

 those objects at all, is to segregate its members into various sub- 

 sidiary bodies, or sections, engaged on particular branches of 

 Science. Even when this division is resorted to, it is a hardy thing 

 to say that every conceivable scientific subject can be dealt with by 

 the eight Sections of the British Association. Nevertheless, as we 



