6 g 6 British Association. [October, 
facility with which they acquired knowledge had very much 
struck him. 
In his Address on Scientific Societies, Prof. Leone Levi 
said that in the seventeenth century there were only two 
scientific societies in this country, but at the present time 
the calendar exhibited an amount of activity quite unknown 
at former periods. In 1878 the number of members for the 
Royal Society was 549 ; for the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
429 ; and for the Royal Irish Academy, 328. The societies 
devoted to physical and mathematical sciences had, in 1878, 
5406 members ; the natural history sciences, 16,534 > 
archaeological and geographical societies, 5038 ; and the 
societies whose object is the study of the applied sciences, 
21,947. The amount voted by the State in 1878 for educa- 
tion, science, and art amounted to £4,153,000. If, however, 
they eliminated from the total vote the amount expended for 
elementary education, the proportion left for science and art 
was considerably diminished, amounting only to £529,000. 
Government aid was principally given to physical and natu- 
ral science, leaving a wide range of scientific exploration 
altogether unassisted. It was not to be desired that Science 
should be subsidised by the State, but the claim of Science 
had been fully recognised. 
The Chairman (Mr. Shaw Lefevre, M.P.) agreed with the 
speakers that the multiplication of members of scientific 
societies did not necessarily indicate the growth of excellence 
in Science and an increase in the number of scientific men. 
They really required some standard, for there was no doubt 
that the members of some learned societies placing so many 
letters after their names was just an indication that they 
could subscribe a certain number of guineas in the year. 
The Royal Society had taken a step in the right direction in 
limiting the number of its Fellows. He always thought the 
letters “ F.R.S.” a much greater distinction than “ M.P.,” 
for it was impossible that that honour could be acquired 
except by the possession of great and solid attainments. 
Section G. 
The President of the Mechanical Science Section (Mr. J. 
Robinson) chose for the subject of his Address the “ Deve- 
lopment of the Use of Steel during the last Forty Years,” 
considered in its Mechanical and Economic Aspects.” Re- 
ferring to the enormous reduction of price, and consequent 
more frequent and more economic application of steel, the 
President said that, following the initiation of Krupp, our 
