XV 



the President some useful notices of the progress of science, and efforts, 

 by no means unsuccessful, were made to spread through Yorkshire a spirit 

 of local inquiry, which is still active in that large natural district. 



It was fortunate for the British Association that its constituent meeting 

 was, by advice of Sir David Brewster, arranged at York, by the ready 

 zeal of a Society so active and under such good auspices. At this meet- 

 ing (in 1831) the general plan of proceeding, and the essential basis of the 

 Association, were drawn up by Mr. Harcourt, and proposed on the part 

 of the Society which he represented. Discussed and accepted by a body of 

 367 members, among whom Murchison was conspicuous, they have re- 

 mained practically the same, though in many points improved by experi- 

 ence through forty years of work. 



Over this increasing enterprise Mr. Harcourt, as General Secretary, 

 watched with unceasing vigilance for several years, and found many 

 occasions for the employment of his personal influence in furthering the 

 advancement of science, both by consultation with its acknowledged 

 leaders and by appeals to the members of the Government. Elected 

 President of the Association at Birmingham in 1839, he took occasion to 

 discuss very fully the history of the discovery of the composition of water, 

 supporting the claim of Cavendish by original documents, which were 

 published in the annual volume. Not less remarkable in this address was 

 the resolute vindication of the claim of science to entire freedom of in- 

 quiry into the constitution of nature, and a high-minded rebuke of the 

 narrow views which refused to accept geological and astronomical truths 

 on account of a supposed conflict of these with particular passages in the 

 Bible — passages of matchless grandeur and beauty, but not destined to 

 teach or control the teaching of the principles of natural science. Breath- 

 ing, as we do now, the freer air of advancing inquiry, there may be some 

 danger of forgetting the obligations we owe to churchmen such as Har- 

 court and Conybeare, who boldly employed their great influence to resist 

 the heavy pressure of well-meaning but ill-reasoning theologians, who 

 sometimes appeared to forget that they were not endowed with "super- 

 natural knowledge of the mysteries of nature. 5 ' 



One of the subjects to which Mr. Harcourt directed his attention with 

 success was the effect of heat on inorganic compounds. With a view to 

 extensive experiments on the effects of high heats in a manageable form, 

 he began the construction of a furnace for burning hydrogen gas under 

 great pressure ; and by the aid of Sir William Fairbairn and the late 

 Mr. Bryan Donkin, this furnace was provided with pressure-gauges, and 

 became a safe and manageable instrument. It was employed for many 

 years in the processes of fusion required for the production of various 

 kinds of glass for optical uses*. Following similar ideas, he assisted as a 

 Member of a Committee of the British Association in the examination of 

 furnace-slags, on which the Report was presented by Dr. Percy f. As 

 * Eeports of the British Association, 1S44. f 1846. 



