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Proceedings erf the British Association. 



as a body called for; in short, in attempting to induce men of science to 

 work more together than they do elsewhere, to establislia system of more 

 strict co-operation between the labourers in one common field, and thus 

 to effect more fully than other societies can do, the combination of intel- 

 lectual exertions. In other societies, the constitution and practice are 

 such, that the labours of the several members are comparatively uncon- 

 nected, and few attempts are systematically made to combine and har- 

 monize them together ; so that if we except that general and useful action 

 of the social spirit upon the intellect of which I have already spoken, and 

 the occasional incitement to specific research, by the previous proposal of 

 prizes, there remains little beyond the publication of Transactions, whereby 

 they seek as bodies to co-operate in the work of science. In them an author, 

 of his own accord, hands in a paper ; the title and subject are announced ; 

 it is referred to a committee for examination, and if it be approved of, 

 it is published at the expense of the society. This is a very great and 

 real g-ood, because the most valuable papers are seldom the most attrac- 

 tive to common purchasers, and because the authors of those papers are 

 rarely able to defray from their own funds the cost of an expensive pub- 

 lication. There is no doubt that if it had not been for this resource, many 

 essays of the greatest value must have been altogether suppressed, for 

 want of pecuniary means. Besides, the approbation of a body of scien- 

 tific men, which is at least partially implied in their undertaking to pub- 

 lish a paper, however limited and guarded it may be by their disclaimer 

 of corporate responsibility, cannot fail to be accounted a high and hon- 

 ourable reward; and one of which the hope must much assist to cheer 

 and support the author in his toils, by virtue of the principle of sympathy. 

 It is known, and, I believe, was mentioned in an address to this Associa- 

 tion at one of the former meetings, that the Principia and Optics of New- 

 ton were published at the request of the Royal Society of London. New- 

 ton, indeed, might well have thought that those works did not need that 

 sanction if the meekness of his high faculties had permitted him to judge 

 of himself as all other men have judged of him : but our gratitude is not 

 therefore due the less to the society whose request prevailed over his own 

 modest reluctance, and procured those treasures for that and for every 

 age. It must be added, that the Royal and Astronomical Societies print 

 abstracts of their communications, for speedy circulation among their 

 members, which is a useful addition to the service done in publishing the 

 papers themselves, and is an example well worthy of being followed by 

 all similar institutions ; and that the Royal Society has even gone so far 

 as to procure and print, in at least one recent instance (I mean in the case 

 of a paper of Mr Lubbock's), and perhaps also in some other instances, a 

 report from some of its members, on a memoir presented by another, thus 

 imitating an excellent practice of the Institute of France, which has pro- 

 bably contributed much to the high state of science in that country. 

 This last procedure, and doubtless other acts of some other scientific so- 

 cieties, such as the discussions in the Geological Society, the lending of 

 instruments by the Astronomical Society to its members, and the occa- 

 sional exhibition of models and experiments by members to the body, in 

 the Irish and other institutions, are examples of direct co-operation ; and, 

 perhaps, there is nothing to prevent such cases being greatly multiplied 

 hereafter. But admitting freely these and other claims of the several so- 

 cieties and academies of the empire to our gratitude for their services to 

 science, and accounting it a very valuable privilege to belong, as most of 

 us do, to one or other of those bodies, and acknowledging that there is 

 much work to be done which can only be done by them, we must still 

 turn to this Association, as the body which is co-operative by eminence. 

 The discussions in its sections are more animated, comprehensive, and 

 instructive, and make minds, which before were strangers, more intimate- 



