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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Nov. 2, 1888. 



him the pendulum apparatus to determine the figure of the earth, 

 and left his friends in England to bring the necessary pressure to 

 bear upon the Government to get the arc measured under his ad- 

 ministration. I have introduced the subject here as one in every 

 way suitable to occupy the attention of the association, or at least 

 one section of it, and I thought the early history of the conception 

 would be new to most of us. And its author is in every respect well 

 worthy of remembrance at our first meeting. He was the first man 

 who can fairly be called a patron of science in Australia, having 

 spent, in furnishing the observatory alone, without salaries, more 

 than ;£i,6oo. He was the first to form an association of scientific 

 men in Australia, with a view of advancing science, and Sir John 

 lierschel justly said of him, when presenting the gold medal of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society for the Paramatta catalogue, " It will 

 be to you a source of honest pride as long as you live to reflect that 

 the most brilliant trait of Australian history marks the era of your 

 government, and that your name will be identified with the future 

 glories of that great colony in ages yet to come, as the founder of 

 her science. It is a distinction worthy of a British governor. Our 

 first triumphs in those fair climes have been the peaceful ones of 

 science, and the treasures they have transmitted to us are imperish- 

 able records of useful knowledge, speedily to be returned with 

 interest to the improvement of their condition, and their elevation 

 in the scale of nations." Amongst the eleven men who formed 

 the first scientific society of Australia there was far more than an 

 average amount of ability. The great weakness of the society, and 

 that which made it impossible for it to exist except under the foster- 

 ing care of the Governor, was its want of numbers ; and unfortun- 

 ately, in many branches of science the same difficulty exists to-day, 

 and makes it always difficult, and in some sciences impossible, to 

 keep alive societies for their promotion only. Even in those 

 societies which include a number of subjects, and thereby add to 

 their numbers the workers in each, it is often difficult to find enough 

 original work, and perhaps I ought to say enthusiasm, to keep a 

 healthy amount of vitality at its meetings. I am sure there are 

 many here present who have to do the work of scientific societies 

 who must have felt this, and who have often wished, as I have, for 

 something to put a little additional vitality into the members, and 

 for something, also, which would bring together a greater number of 

 workers in each branch of science, so that ideas might be inter- 

 changed, and a little healthy emulation aroused. Not something 

 to withdraw members from their own societies and steady work, but 

 something to make us feel that it will not do to go to sleep, because 

 our fellow-workers in the other colonies are very wide awake. The 

 Australian Association for the Advancement of Science seems to me 

 to meet our case exactly. Its meetings only last for one week in 

 each year, and therefore cannot take members from their local 

 societies, and by assembling the workers in each branch of science 

 from all the colonies, by asking them to form committees and work 

 side by side for a time, it promotes the exchange of ideas upon the 

 same subject, and the pleasure which that affords. There can be 

 no more fitting time to explain the steps which have led up to our 

 Association for the Advancement of Science than this, our first 

 meeting, when I hope all the members are present. I have no 

 doubt that to very many the information will be new, and under any 

 circumstances we must leave for those who come after us an account 

 of the origin of an effort in the cause of science which I am sure 

 will have an important and lasting influence on the scientific progress 

 of Australia. The first step was taken by Professor Liversidge, who 

 is himself an institution for the advancement of science, and knows 

 no fatigue in that service. Round him everything has revolved in 

 perfect order to the complete preparation for this meeting. On 

 September 16th, 1884, in a letter to the Herald, which was after- 

 wards reproduced by most of the colonial and some of the home 

 papers, he pointed out that the interest created in Australia by the 

 announcement at the British Association meeting in Montreal of 

 Mr. Caldwell's discovery of the oviparous nature of the platypus 

 and porcupine had led to the suggestion that they should meet 

 some day in Australia, but that he thought this was improbable at 

 present, owing to the time it would take and the cost, and he sug- 

 gested that we should make preparations for the realisation of the 

 proposal by bringing about a federation or union of the members of 

 the scientific societies of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand into 

 an association on the lines of the British Association, and that the 

 first meeting should be in 1888, as one of the features of the Cen- 

 tennial year. He had previously, viz., in 1879, mentioned the pro- 

 posal to a few, but thinking matters were hardly ripe to press it, he 

 had not gone further. Nearly two years then elapsed, and no one 

 took up the suggestion, so in his address as President of the Royal 

 Society in May, 1886, he said, "I am still of opinion that arrange- 

 ments should be made far holding a meeting of those who wish to 

 form an Australasian Association in 1888, and I shall be glad if 

 those who are in favour of it will kindly send me their names." " If 



the proposed Australasian Association for the Advancement of 

 Science should really become an accomplished fact, as I hope it will, 

 the first meeting should. I think, be held in 1888," and he then 

 sketched an outline of the rules for it, based on those of the British 

 Association. On June 30th, 1886, came the first support to his 

 proposal ; the Council of the Royal Society of New South Wales 

 resolved to take a part in furthering thebe views, then promises of 

 support came in from the other colonies. Thereupon in July, 1886, 

 he sent a circular to the presidents of the various Australasian societies, 

 telling them that his proposal had been favourably received, and re- 

 questing them to appoint members of their council or delegates to 

 represent them at a meeting of such delegates from various societies 

 as soon as possible. The number of representatives or delegates 

 from each society was to be one for each 100 members. On July 

 28th, 1886, the Royal Society of New South Wales appointed five 

 delegates ; thirty-four other societies agreed to join, and twenty-eight 

 appointed delegates for the meeting, which was called for 10th 

 November, 1886. At the meeting sixteen delegates were present — 

 seven from New South Wales, two from New Zealand, two from 

 Queensland, five from Victoria. They framed and adopted 

 the provisional rules which we now have, and which are 

 the British Association rules altered to suit our circumstances. 

 It was resolved that the president, hon. secretaries, and 

 hon. treasurer should be elected by ballot from the repre- 

 sentatives of the colony in which the meeting is to be held, and 

 the presidents of sections from members in the other colonies, and 

 that the first election shall be held in Sydney in March, 1888 ; and 

 further, that the first meeting should be held in the beginning of 

 September, l8S8, in Sydney. Special appeal was then made in the 

 daily press to all who intended to join the society to send in their 

 names, so that they might be eligible for election to the official 

 positions, officers for which had to be elected by ballot, and the 

 elections were delayed as long as possible to give every one time to 

 join. The delegates were called tcgether, and met on March 7th, 

 1888, and they elected— H. C. Russell, F.R.S., President ; Prof. 

 Liversidge, M.A., F.R.S., and Dr. George Bennett, F.L.S., Hon. 

 Secretaries ; and Sir Edward Strickland, K.C.B., Hon. Treasurer. 

 Since then the council, composed of the delegates from the various 

 societies taking part in the work, have held 13 meetings, and have 

 found plenty to do in arranging the details for the meeting, electing 

 vice-presidents, presidents, and secretaries of sections, collecting 

 papers to be read, etc., for this meeting, and have caused to be sent 

 out 6,000 circulars to members of scientific societies in Australia ; 

 they have, in fact, been sent to every member whose address was 

 known to them; and thinking it possible that there were many others 

 who would join an association with such a wide basis, they have 

 appealed to the public through the daily papers of all the colonies 

 very frequently, by advertisement and paragraph, and the result is 

 that to-day our numbers are 750, which, I think, is very 

 satisfactory and encouraging. I may mention that in Australasia 

 there are only 38 scientific societies known to the officers of this 

 movement. AH these were appealed to by letter ; 34. expressed their 

 ntention of taking part in it, and of these 28 sent representatives 

 to the meetings — this out of a population which may be roughly 

 stated at 4J millions. In 1831, when the parent society was formed, 

 the population of the United Kingdom was 23 millions, and there 

 were in existence 39 scientific societies (I am unable to say what 

 was the number of members). I have endeavoured thus briefly to 

 sketch the history of the movement which has resulted in the pre- 

 sent association. Like the British Association, our basis is broad 

 enough to take in " whatever desire there may be in the country to 

 promote science," and those who have joined hope that no man will 

 stand aloof who has any desire to help in the advancement of 

 science. After the experience gathered by a similar institution in 

 the old country, I have no fear for the future of this movement. I 

 do not expect the association to emerge from the shell of its first 

 meeting perfect ; that would be unreasonable; but I believe that 

 we have accepted a constitution and acquired an impulse which in 

 the course of time will lead us on to the realisation of our purpose. 

 The scientific man works very much alone, isolated from those 

 around him by his peculiar manner of life, and from his fellow- 

 workers by distance, because so far the world expects each scientific 

 man to be a world in himself, to be able to do all it wants of that 

 science, and is not disposed to keep several where one can be made 

 to do. The call of the British Association, therefore, to meet once a 

 year those who are like-minded, appeals to his social instincts in a 

 very effective way. Hence the opportunity of going to the meeting 

 to see and talk with his fellow-workers is not to be lost. It is a 

 real pleasure to have a talk with kindred spirits, and a very effective 

 motive for application all through the year, for no man would 

 choose under such circumstances to neglect his self-culture, and feel 

 at the meeting that he was far behind his fellows. Then these 

 meetings naturally lead to the formation of committees, who mu?t 



